Bodies of AirAsia flight victims 'may wash up on Borneo beaches' as storms scatter wreckage and suspend search and rescue operations

 

The bodies of passengers on board doomed AirAsia flight 8501 may wash up on Borneo beaches as stormy weather scatters wreckage and suspends search and rescue operations.

Seven bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea in the 24 hours since wreckage was first spotted 100 miles off the Indonesian coast but fierce winds and strong currents have already dispersed floating wreckage more than 30 miles from the crash site.

Helicopter missions to collect bodies and debris were suspended for much of the day as heavy rain reduced visibility to less than half a mile, with experts warning that the longer the recovery efforts take, the further the bodies will scatter - increasing the likelihood of corpses washing ashore. 

The news comes as an Indonesian official who earlier claimed at least one of the recovered bodies was wearing a lifejacket, backtracked to say that in fact none of the victims were wearing one.

Deputy Operations Major-General Tatang Basarnas Zaenuddin's earlier statement led many to believe passengers on board doomed AirAsia flight 8501 would have been aware that the plane was going crash, and raised the possibility some may even have survived the initial impact.

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Solemn: The first coffins of AirAsia flight 8501 have taken to Juanda Airport where devastated relatives anxiously have been anxiously preparing to identify their loved ones

Indonesian military personnel carry one of two coffins with the remains of bodies recovered from the AirAsia crash site as they arrive for identification at Juanda Airport

The first bodies arrive at Juanda Airport near Surabaya in East Java province earlier today. Next of kin have been asked for DNA samples to help identify the victims

The bodies were first transported in body bags from the crash site - 100 miles off the Indonesian coast of Borneo Island - to Iskandar Military Airport near the town of Pangkalan Bun (pictured)  

Leaked radar data has revealed that the plane (shown as AWQ8501 in the bottom right of the screen) made an 'unbelievably' steep climb just moments before it crashed, pushing the Airbus A320 beyond its capabilities

Ships and planes have been scouring the Java Sea for flight QZ8501 since Sunday, when the AirAsia plane lost contact during bad weather 42 minutes into its flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

Despite suggestions passengers may have been alive during the plane's final few moments in the air, the the pilots did not issue a distress signal in the time between asking permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather and six minutes later when air traffic control lost contact with the plane.

Leaked radar data has now revealed that the plane made an 'unbelievably' steep climb just moments before it crashed, pushing the Airbus A320 well beyond its capabilities.

An image understood to be from flight records held by AirNav Indonesia, which manages the country's air space, emerged on social media this afternoon and suggested the plane made a dramatic climb while travelling at relatively low speed shortly before contact was lost.

'So far, the numbers taken by the radar are unbelievably high. This rate of climb is very high, too high. It appears to be beyond the performance envelope of the aircraft,' an anonymous source said to be familiar with the crash investigation told the Hindustan Times.

Some of the recovered bodies were fully clothed, which could indicate the Airbus A320-200 was intact when it hit the water - supporting the theory that the plane did not explode or break up in mid-air and may instead have suffered an aerodynamic stall. 

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Members of the Indonesian Air Force crew carry a coffin to a transport plane at Iskandar Military Airport on Borneo Island. From there the bodies made the short journey to East Java for formal identification

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Relatives of the AirAsia plane crash victims pray at Juanda Airport in East Java earlier this morning

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A Basarnas rescue helicopter is seen behind three covered bodies recovered from the AirAsia plane as they rest on the deck of KRI Bung Tomo warship off the Java Sea, Indonesia

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Search teams monitor a weather map at Pangkalan Bun air base this morning after stormy weather halted the recovery of victims of AirAsia flight QZ8501

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A member of the Indonesian military reacts after seeing an unidentified floating dead body from the doomed AirAsia flight 8501 during a search and rescue (SAR) mission

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Tragic: The flight went missing from radar at 6.18am local time - six minutes after last communication with air traffic control - while travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. Search and rescue workers first spotted a number of bodies and debris floating in the water yesterday morning

Earlier Lieutenant Airman Tri Wobowo, who co-piloted the C130 Hercules aircraft that first saw debris of the plane on Tuesday, told Indonesian newspaper Kompas: 'There are seven to eight people. Three [of them] again hold hands.'   

This morning the first coffins containing a woman and a boy from onboard doomed flight 8501 arrived at an airport where devastated relatives are waiting to identify their loved ones' bodies.

The two simple wooden coffins - numbered 001 and 002 with purple flowers on top - were seen at Juanda Airport near Surabaya in East Java province this morning, where a crisis centre has been providing information to anxious family members since the plane vanished from radars just 42 minutes after departing the airport on Sunday.

The first two victims were a woman and a boy. The other five bodies - three male and two female - will remain on a nearby warship until the weather clears. 

The bodies were first transported in body bags from the crash site - 100 miles off the Indonesian coast of Borneo Island - to Iskandar Military Airport near the town of Pangkalan Bun, where they were placed in coffins for the short journey to East Java for formal identification.

Next of kin have been asked for DNA samples to help identify the victims. 

Many family members had planned to travel to Pangkalan Bun, 100 miles from the area where bodies were first spotted, to start identifying their loved ones.

However, Surabaya airport general manager Trikora Hardjo later said the trip was cancelled after authorities suggested their presence could slow down the operation.

Instead, some relatives gave blood for DNA tests in Surabaya, where the bodies will be transported, and submitted photos of their loved ones along with identifying information such as tattoos or birthmarks that could help make the process easier.

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Indonesian Marines carry equipment from an air force plane during search and rescue operations

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Indonesian marines unload their diving equipment as they prepare to join the search operation for the plane

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Royal Malaysian Navy search and rescue crews are seen retrieving the body of a crash victim in a photograph released by Malaysia's Ministry of Defence earlier today

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A photograph released by Malaysia's Ministry of Defence today shows members of the Royal Malaysian Navy recovering AirAsia flight 8501's emergency slide from the Java Sea

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Indonesians hold candles to pray for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 in Surabaya, Indonesia today

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Indonesian women take shelter under an umbrella during a candlelight vigil for the victims of flight 8501

Meanwhile Indonesian search officials using sonar radar technology have confirmed that they have located the fuselage of the the Airbus A320-200 upside down on the floor of the Java Sea.

Rescue workers said the plane is resting in 30 metre deep water in the area off Borneo Island where bodies and wreckage was found yesterday.

Since the wreckage from the plane was discovered off the coast of Borneo Island, after three days of searching, there have been a number of different body counts from several official sources, including at one point yesterday that 40 bodies had been recovered from the sea.  

Several pieces of red, white and black debris - including luggage, a plane door and an emergency slide - were were spotted in the Java Sea near Borneo island yesterday.

A 38-year-old Indonesian fisherman, Mohammed Taha, was reportedly the first person to spot any wreckage - despite the multi-million dollar air-search for the jet.

Mr Taha spotted metal objects in the water but didn't know a plane was missing until he returned to his home in the village of Belinyu on Monday, Indonesian news website Tempo reported.

'I found a lot of debris - small and large - in the Tujuh islands,' Mr Taha said.

'The largest was four metres long and two metres wide. They were red coloured with white silver. It looked like the AirAsia colours.'  

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Indonesian police officers erect a tent during the ongoing search and rescue operation at Iskandar Military Airport, Pangkalan Bun, Borneo, Indonesia

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An air force officer walks through the rain at Pangkalan Bun air base after the operation to find the missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501 was halted due to bad weather

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A plastic suitcase, un-inflated emergency and oxygen tank from doomed flight 8501 were displayed by rescue workers at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia yesterday

Bad weather hindered efforts to recover victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 today, and sent wreckage drifting far from the crash site, as grieving relatives prayed for the strength to move forward.

'Help us, God, to move forward, even though we are surrounded by darkness,' the Rev Philip Mantofa, whose church lost about 40 members in the disaster, told families gathered in a waiting room at Surabaya airport.

The massive hunt for 162 people who vanished on Sunday aboard the Airbus A320 from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, was severely limited due to heavy rain, wind and thick clouds.

Conditions prevented divers from entering the choppy Java Sea, and helicopters were largely grounded. But 18 ships continued to scour the narrowed search area, and four of the seven bodies were recovered today.

Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency predicted conditions would worsen, with more intense rains, through Friday.

'It seems all the wreckage found has drifted more than 50km from yesterday's location,' said vice air marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue co-ordinator in Pangkalan Bun on Borneo island, the closest town to the site. 'We are expecting those bodies will end up on beaches.'

Hernanto, head of the search and rescue agency in Surabaya, said rescuers believed they had found the plane on the sea bed with a sonar scan in water 100-165 feet deep. The black box flight data and cockpit voice recorder has yet to be found.

Authorities in Surabaya were making preparations to receive and identify bodies, including arranging 130 ambulances to take victims to a police hospital and collecting DNA from relatives.

'We are praying it is the plane so the evacuation can be done quickly,' Hernanto said.

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Officers of the National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) examine maps of the area where the debris and bodies from AirAsia flight 8501 were found

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The emergency slide from flight 8501 was taken to an Indonesia Air Force media conference yesterday

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Live Indonesian television news footage showed at least one corpse floating in the water yesterday

Relatives, many of whom collapsed in grief when they saw the first grim television pictures confirming their fears yesterday, held prayers at a crisis centre at Surabaya airport earlier today.

AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes has described the crash as his 'worst nightmare' and told Indonesia's President that he believes the crash was caused solely by bad weather.

Despite the black box recorder having not yet been found, Mr Fernandes said there was 'some very unique weather conditions in the area at the time'.

He then added:'We cannot make any assumptions about what went wrong. All I can say is that the weather in south-east Asia is bad at the moment.'

At a press conference yesterday he said: 'This is a scar with me for the rest of my life...There is at least some closure as opposed to not knowing what's happened and holding out hope.'

There were no immediate reports of any survivors, although the presence of a life raft and corpses seen holding hands has raised hopes that some people may have survived the crash.

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C) speaking in an Air Force aircraft Hercules C-130 during the search and locate (SAL) operation for missing AirAsia flight QZ850

Before the crash the plane was travelling at 32,000 feet and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet. 

When air traffic controllers granted permission for a rise to 34,000 feet a few minutes later, they received no response.

Online discussion among pilots has centred on unconfirmed secondary radar data from Malaysia that suggested the aircraft was climbing at a speed of 353 knots, about 100 knots too slow, and that it might have stalled.

Investigators are focusing initially on whether the crew took too long to request permission to climb, or could have ascended on their own initiative earlier, said a source close to the inquiry, adding that poor weather could have played a part as well.

The Indonesian captain, a former air force fighter pilot, had 6,100 flying hours under his belt and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, said the airline, which is 49 per cent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia .

Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the country's aviation industry and spooked travellers.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing in March on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline's Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

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A crew member of Indonesian Navy CN-235 airplane prays prior to the start of a search operation for the missing AirAsia flight 8501

Earlier, Indonesia National Search and Rescue spokesman Yusuf Latif said an Indonesian military aircraft saw white, red and black objects, including what appeared to be a lifejacket, off the coast, about 105 miles south of Pangkalan Bun.

A massive international search effort has been launched since Flight 8501, an Airbus A320-200 with 155 passengers and seven crew aboard, disappeared from radar over the Java Sea near Belitung island.

The US, China, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand have all been involved in the search, with local fishermen helping.

The first bodies were discovered within two hours of it being revealed that family members were intending to fly over the search area so they could pray for those who were missing.

It was not immediately clear whether Sunday's charter flight will now go ahead as officials said that viewing the debris would be likely to cause great anxiety. 

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A large amount of debris from the plans has been located - including a life raft, life jackets and orange tubes

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A photo taken from a search and rescue aircraft over the Java Sea shows debris from AirAsia flight 8501

THE FULL STATEMENT FROM INDONESIA AIRASIA AFTER DEBRIS WAS FOUND

Indonesia AirAsia regrets to inform that The National Search and Rescue Agency Republic of Indonesia (BASARNAS) today confirmed that the debris found earlier today is indeed from QZ8501, the flight that had lost contact with air traffic control on the morning of 28th.

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'Devastated': AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes has released a statement after debris was found

The debris of the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait around 110 nautical miles south west from Pangkalan Bun. The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were 155 passengers on board, with 137 adults, 17 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots, 4 cabin crews and one engineer.

At the present time, search and rescue operations are still in progress and further investigation of the debris found at the location is still underway. Indonesia AirAsia employees have been sent to the site and will be fully cooperating with BASARNAS, National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), and relevant authorities on the investigation.

Sunu Widyatmoko, Chief Executive Officer of Indonesia AirAsia said: 'We are sorry to be here today under these tragic circumstances. We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of those on board QZ8501. Our sympathies also go out to the families of our dear colleagues.'

Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia added: 'I am absolutely devastated. This is a very difficult moment for all of us at AirAsia as we await further developments of the search and rescue operations but our first priority now is the wellbeing of the family members of those onboard QZ8501.'

Indonesia AirAsia will be inviting family members to Surabaya, where a dedicated team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that all of their needs are met. Counsellors, religious and spiritual personnel have also been invited to the family centre to provide any necessary services.

Further information will be released as soon as it becomes available. An emergency call centre has been established and available for families seeking information. Family members of QZ8501, please contact:

Malaysia: +60 3 21795959

Indonesia: +62 2129270811

Singapore: +65 63077688

Korea: 007 98142069940

Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families and friends of our passengers and colleagues on board QZ8501.

The Airbus A320-200 lost contact at about 6.17am local time en route from Surabaya, in Indonesia's east Java, to Singapore after the crew requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather. 

Aviation experts have revealed veteran pilots usually avoid the area known as the 'thunderstorm factory' where AirAsia Flight 8501 went missing because of its catastrophic storms. 

Strategic Aviation Solutions chairman Neil Hansford told Channel 9's Today most flights went around the area and somebody 'dropped the ball' when they made the flight plan for 8501. 

A statement from the Pentagon said Indonesia had requested their help and their assistance 'could include some air, surface and sub-surface detection capabilities'. 

On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.

The AirAsia group, including affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India, had not suffered a crash since its Malaysian budget operations began in 2002.

A British national, named as Chi Man Choi, according to reports of the passenger manifest in the Indonesian media, is among those on board the plane. 

He is thought to have been travelling with his daughter Zoe on tickets bought on Boxing Day.

Mr Chi is believed to hold a British passport but to have lived in Singapore with his family.  

AirAsia's fleet of short-haul jets was already being fitted with upgraded tracking devices, but the A320 jetliner had not yet been modified when it went missing, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Waters in the search area, which is roughly the size of California, are not particularly deep at between 130 feet and 160 feet.

Speculation on the cause of the plane's disappearance has centred on weather, speed and an older radar system.

Aviation experts have speculated that the flight may have encountered 'black storm cells' which caused a build-up of ice on airspeed senors known as pitot tubes.

A similar scenario was blamed for the Air France disaster when Flight AF447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 while en route from Rio De Janeiro to Paris.

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas spoke to several check captains and believes the pilot of QZ8501 encountered difficult weather conditions but flew too slow in his efforts to avoid it. 

'The QZ8501 was flying too slow, about 100 knots which is about 160 km/h too slow. At that altitude that's exceedingly dangerous,' Mr Thomas said. 

'Pilots believe that the crew, in trying to avoid the thunderstorm by climbing, somehow have found themselves flying too slow and thus induced an aerodynamic stall similar to the circumstances of the loss of Air France AF447 to crash in 2009.' 

'I have a radar plot which shows him at 36,000 feet and climbing at a speed of 353 knots, which is approximately 100 knots too slow ... if the radar return is correct, he appears to be going too slow for the altitude he is flying at,' Mr Thomas said.

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Aviation Safety Network posted this radar graphic on Twitter showing all the flights in the air at the time QZ8501 went missing. A request by one of the pilots to increase altitude due to stormy weather conditions was denied because another jet was in the airspace at the time

'Essentially the plane is flying too slow to the altitude and the thin air, and the wings won't support it at that speed and you get a stall, an aerodynamic stall.'

The A320, while sophisticated, is not equipped with the latest radar, Mr Thomas said.  

AIRASIA BOASTED IT WOULD 'NEVER LOSE A PLANE' DAYS AFTER MH370 VANISHED WITH 239 ON BOARD

AirAsia once boasted that its well-trained pilots would never lose a plane days after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared.

The budget carrier was forced into a humiliating apology and withdrew the offending article after it was published in its in-flight magazine.

The article sparked anger on social media after an AirAsia passenger posted a photograph of the text on Twitter last April.

The last paragraph read: 'Pilot training in AirAsia is continuous and very thorough. Rest assured that your captain is well prepared to ensure your plane will never get lost.' 

AirAsia Executive Chairman Kamarudin Meranun expressed 'deep regret and remorse,' saying the latest issue of 'travel 3Sixty' magazine was printed before the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people disappeared ON March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Mr Kamarudin said the article was a monthly aviation column prepared well in advance by a retired pilot, who had worked for both AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines.

'This is a truly difficult time for the nation and words cannot describe how I personally feel of this incident,' Mr Kamarudin said in a statement.  

The radar used by the A320 can sometimes have problems in thunderstorms and the pilot may have been deceived by the severity of these particular ones.  

The latest technology radars, which were pioneered by Qantas in 2002, can give a more complete and accurate reading of a thunderstorm, but they will not be certified for the A320 until next year.

'If you don't have what's called a multi-skilled radar you have to tilt the radar yourself manually, you have to look down to the base of the thunderstorm to see what the intensity of the moisture and the rain is, then you make a judgment of how bad it is. 

'It's manual, so it's possible to make a mistake, it has happened,' Mr Thomas explained.  

In a separate development, Earth Network, a firm that monitors weather conditions around the world, recorded a number of lightning strikes 'near the path' of the plane when it disappeared on Sunday morning, it was reported by the New York Times.

Although unlikely to have caused structural damage to the A320, lightning can affect navigation systems and flashes could temporarily disorient pilots, the paper notes.

Sudden shifts in wind direction also have the potential to force jet engines into a stall, although experts this scenario is very unlikely and point to the fact that the Airbus A320 is certified to fly up to three hours on a single engine. 

AirAsia confirmed there were 155 passengers on board - including 138 adults, 16 children and one infant - and also stated there were two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer on board 

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Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas (left) believes the plane, piloted by Captain Iriyanto, was flying too slowly

'UNBEARABLE' WAIT FOR BROTHER OF MISSING BRITISH PASSENGER AND TWO-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER

The brother of a British man who was travelling on the passenger jet missing off the coast of Indonesia has said the wait for news is 'unbearable' as the family prepares 'for the worst'.

Chi-Man Choi, pictured right, who is originally from Hull, Yorkshire, was flying from Indonesia to Singapore with his two-year-old daughter, Zoe, where they were expected to reunite with his wife and son.

His brother, Chi-Wai Choi, said he was comforting his elderly parents, hoping for positive news but nevertheless 'preparing them for the worst.'

'It doesn't look good at the moment. I am sure if there was anything to find then they would have found it by now.' he told The Sun. 'It is a very tricky time at the moment. We are just holding together for my parents.

'They don't know what to make of it.' 

Chi-Man Choi, a University of Essex graduate, was the managing director of an energy company in Indonesia.

He purchased his plane ticket and that of his daughter on Boxing Day - according to the passenger manifest - and they were seated in the first row, in seats 1B and 1C. 

The twin-engine, single-aisle plane, which never sent a distress signal, was last seen on radar four minutes after the last communication from the cockpit. 

Search efforts for the plane's wreckage resumed on Monday at first light and were focused around the area of the Java Sea near Belitung.

Earlier, the billionaire CEO of AirAsia described missing flight QZ8501 as his 'worst nightmare' as the massive air and sea search for the plane resumed at first light on Monday.

Tony Fernandes spoke of his horror over the situation after the plane lost contact with air traffic control, a short time after the pilot asked to deviate from the flight path due to 'bad weather'.

Upon first arriving in Indonesia, Mr Fernandes gave a press conference to family and friends of those on board the plane and said the focus should be on the search and the families. 

The 50-year-old built AirAsia from a small, heavily indebted company to a huge low-cost airline after buying it for just 50 cent in 2001. 

He later expanded into long-hail flights with the AirAsia X brand. 

The fishing boats and official vessels that were sent out by Indonesia's national search and rescue authority, along with helicopters and Hercules aircraft from Singapore, set out again at sunrise on Monday morning. 

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott offered the nation's help to assist in the search on Sunday.

Mr Abbott was speaking on Macquarie Radio on Monday, adding: 'It's an aircraft that was flying a regular route on a regular schedule, it struck what appears to have been horrific weather and it's downed'.