The main fuselage of the downed AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 has been found by a Republic of Singapore Navy vessel, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on Wednesday (14th Jan).
The pictures have also been released online:
*Pictures via Malaysia Kini’s Twitter account.
He said via a Facebook post that he hoped that locating the main wreckage of the Airbus A320-200 aeroplane could help bring “some form of closure” to families of victims:
Chief of Navy RADM Lai Chung Han just informed me that one of SAF’s ships, the MV Swift Rescue, has located the fuselage of the AirAsia plane in the Java Sea. Images taken by the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) show part of the wing and words on the fuselage. We have informed BASARNAS, the Indonesian search authority who can now begin recovery operations. The accident is a tragic event resulting in the loss of many lives. I hope that with the fuselage located, some form of closure can come to the families of the victims to ease their grief. I would also like to thank all our SAF servicemen who have given this mission their all to help the Indonesians recover the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, and the fuselage. Especially to the crew of MV Swift Rescue, you never gave up – well done.
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was en route from Surabaya to Singapore when went missing after losing contact with air traffic control. It was believed to have crashed due to bad weather. The aircraft had 155 passengers and 7 AirAsia crew on board (total 162 people).
Source: CNA.