Divers to inspect AirAsia fuselage again
|Published
Head of the National Search and Rescue Agency Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo walks in front of a rescue helicopter during the search operation of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 at Iskandar airbase in Pangkalan Bun. Photo: Reuters Head of the National Search and Rescue Agency Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo walks in front of a rescue helicopter during the search operation of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 at Iskandar airbase in Pangkalan Bun. Photo: Reuters
Jakarta - Bad weather was frustrating attempts by a team of 81 Indonesian divers Friday to examine the fuselage of the AirAsia plane that crashed last month.
“There's still no significant result because the weather is bad,” said Suryadi Supriyadi, the search operation director.
The team on Thursday had failed to reach the fuselage, which is about 30 metres under the sea off Borneo island, because of strong currents and low visibility.
Officials said they were considering using inflated balloons to lift the fuselage, which may still contain many bodies.
Supriyadi said three more bodies were found, including one by a fisherman, bringing the confirmed death toll to 53.
The aircraft crashed on December 28 on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore with 162 people on board. There have been no survivors.
The fuselage was found on Wednesday, following the retrieval of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the seabed earlier in the week.
Investigators said they had downloaded the data from both recorders and were analyzing them to determine the chain of events leading to the fatal crash.
A preliminary report on the accident is expected within a month.
Sapa-dpa