Items resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other objects were spotted during an aerial search Tuesday (30th Dec) for missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Indonesian officials said.
“We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph,” Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto told a press conference. “The position is 10 kilometres from the location the plane was last captured by radar.”
He displayed 10 photos of objects resembling a plane door, emergency slide, and a square box-like object.
An AFP photographer on the same flight that spotted the debris said he had seen objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes.
#BREAKING Debris ‘from AirAsia plane': Indonesian civil aviation
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 30, 2014
UPDATE (4pm, 30th Dec):
Indonesian officials coming off a helicopter on Borneo island said they have recovered several bodies floating in waters near where the missing AirAsia flight was last seen. The bodies, swollen but intact, were brought to an Indonesian navy ship, National Search and Rescue Director SB Supriyadi told reporters in the nearest town, Pangkalan Bun.
The corpses did not have life jackets on. But the bodies, just like the debris, is likely from the missing plane, Air Chief Marshal FH Bambang Soelistyo of BASARNAS, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency told a press conference. “At 13:25 … we spotted a floating object believed to be one of the passengers’ bodies,” Mr Soelistyo told the press conference.
A dive team of 11 personnel is on the way to the site which is in about 25m to 30m of water, Mr Soelistyo said.
Source: WSJ
Relatives of the 162 people missing on the flight gathered in Surabaya in Indonesia from where the flight originated hugged each other and burst into tears upon the news.
Soelistyo said that earlier an air force plane spotted a “shadow” on the seabed believed to be the missing AirAsia jet. “At 12:50 the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane,” he said.
Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir confirmed the discovery to TVOne, saying several victims were found, but he did not indicate whether they were dead or alive. Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto told MetroTV at least one body was found.
#BREAKING Body found in sea search for AirAsia Flight #QZ8501: Indonesian search and rescue — Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 30, 2014
AirAsia Bhd Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes tweeted that he’s currently rushing to Surabaya, pledging to do whatever they can do:
I am rushing to Surabaya. Whatever we can do at Airasia we will be doing. — Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 30, 2014
UPDATE (6:30pm, 30th Dec):
More than 40 bodies retrieved in search, Indonesia navy says, according to AFP. “Based on the navy radio, it has been reported that the warship Bung Tomo has retrieved 40 bodies and the number is growing. They are very busy now,” an official said.
Developing story.
Source: CNA, The Star (1), AP, WSJ, The Star (2).