In a major breakthrough for the search team, an Indonesian Navy ship sonar detected two underwater objects large enough, believed to be...
In a major breakthrough for the search team, an Indonesian Navy ship sonar detected two underwater objects large enough, believed to be from the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501.
A 3-dimensional object measuring 9.4 x 4.8 x 0.4 meters, and a two-dimensional object measuring 7.2 x 0.5 meters were found adjacent to each other at a depth of 30 meters.
An ROV (remotely operated vehicle) have been lowered to bottom of the ocean to take better images. Adverse weather conditions like high waves and strong currents is hampering the search efforts.
A puddle of fuel has also been found reported to be from Air Asia QZ 8501.
"I'm sure the oil slick and the discovery of a large part of the second aircraft of this kind, I am sure that it is part of Air Asia that we had been looking for this." Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief said.
The initial lead that led to the detection of objects was the reporting of a plane shadow by an Indonesian Airforce C-130 Hercules search aircraft on Tuesday, Dec. 30. From the results of the report and the findings of the bodies as well as other parts of the plane, the team determined the priority sector for search. Furthermore Basarnas ordered KRI Bung Tomo ship to perform a search operation with the sonar system in the priority sector and on Friday the ship received sonar signals. However, that day the position was not clearly confirmed. Hence a Geo Survey Ship was deployed which finally found the two objects quite large in dimensions.
Basarnas says, after the ROV clearly take picture and ensure an exact position, divers will be deployed.
In addition to divers from the Air Force and Special Basarnas Group, Basarnas has sought assistance from Russia. Russia has send 40-50 divers and 2 airplanes, a BE-200 amphibious aircraft and an Ilyushin II-76 airlifter. The BE-200 can take off and land in ocean, hence can independently evacuate the bodies or other findings. The Russian team also carries a summersible vehicle.
