Ice may have caused AirAsia crash: govt agency
PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AFP) - Weather was the "triggering factor" in the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 with icing likely causing engine damage, Indonesia's meteorological agency said, as divers found another body Sunday during a momentary respite fro
The Airbus A320-200 crashed into the Java Sea a week ago carrying 162 people from Indonesia's second city Surabaya to Singapore, and relief workers are hunting for the "black box" flight data recorders to determine the cause of the crash.
An initial report on the website of BMKG, Indonesia's meteorological agency, suggested the weather at the time the plane went down sparked the disaster after it appeared to fly into storm clouds.
"Based on the available data received on the location of the aircraft's last contact, the weather was the triggering factor behind the accident," said the report.
"The most probable weather phenomenon was icing which can cause engine damage due to a cooling process. This is just one of the possibilities that occurred based on the analysis of existing meteorological data."
Five major parts of the Airbus A320-200 have now been found off the island of Borneo, but rough weather throughout the week has hampered the relief process, a huge operation assisted by several countries including the United States and Russia.
As the weather cleared, a team of divers went down to the biggest part of the wreckage Sunday morning and recovered one body, bringing to 31 the number of victims found, but bad conditions forced them to surface again.
"They managed to go down but the visibility at the sea bottom was zero, it was dark and the seabed was muddy, with currents of three to five knots," search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters, adding that heavy rain and big waves were continuing to hamper the rescue effort.
"For that reason, the diving efforts must be temporarily stopped. We'll try to deploy an ROV (remotely-operated underwater vehicle)," he said.
He said the fifth major part of the plane, located early Sunday, was about 10 metres by one metre (33 by 3.3 feet).
