Probe into AirAsia schedules
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Indonesia says it 'flew beyond terms' of permit; licence may be at risk, official says; big parts of jet found on sea floor
Indonesia’s transport ministry will investigate all Indonesia AirAsia flight schedules from tomorrow as part of a government probe into the passenger jet that crashed, according to a senior official.
“We are going to investigate all AirAsia flight schedules,” Djoko Muratmodjo, acting general director for air navigation in the transport ministry said yesterday. “Hopefully, we can start next Monday. We won’t focus on licences, just schedules.”
“It is possible AirAsia’s licence in Indonesia might be revoked,” he said, stressing that was only one possibility.
Ships searching for the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed with 162 people on board have pinpointed two “big objects” on the sea floor, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said yesterday.
A multinational task force of ships, planes and helicopters have been scouring the northern Java Sea and coastline off southern Borneo to recover the bodies of victims and locate the wreck of Flight QZ8501 and its black box flight recorders.
The transport ministry on Friday temporarily suspended Indonesia AirAsia’s Surabaya-Singapore flights because it had apparently operated the service beyond the scope of its licence, which permitted flights on four days of the week but not Sundays, when the crash occurred.
“We will also investigate the party that gave permission to AirAsia to fly on that day,” Muratmodjo added.
Indonesia AirAsia CEO Sunu Widyatmoko said company would cooperate with the investigation into the Surabaya-Singapore route, but declined to answer further questions.
Ships searching for the passenger jet’s wreck have pinpointed two “big objects” on the sea floor, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said yesterday.
The breakthrough came as authorities in Jakarta said that ndonesia AirAsia was violating the terms of its licence for the urabaya to Singapore route by flying on a Sunday, the day the irbus A320-200 plunged into the Java Sea, and said they would investigate the budget carrier’s other schedules.
Search and rescue agency chief Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo said underwater remote operating vehicles (ROV) were being used to try to capture images to confirm the underwater objects were parts of the lost plane.
“We have detected two objects underwater [at] 30 metres depth,” said Soelistyo. “At this moment, we are operating the ROVto take pictures of the objects.”
No survivors have been found from the crash, which happened about 40 minutes after the plane took off from Indonesia’s second-largest city in an area known for intense tropical thunderstorms during the current monsoon season.
Air-traffic controllers lost contact with Flight QZ8501 minutes after the pilot requested to fly higher to try and avoid a storm cell.
Indonesian authorities on Friday questioned whether the pilot had followed correct weather report procedures, and later suspended Indonesia AirAsia’s Surabaya to Singapore flights for apparently infringing the terms of its licence for the route.
Much of the effort has focused on finding victims of the crash. Officials said 21 bodies were pulled from the sea on Friday, including two still strapped in their seats, bringing the total number of victims recovered to 30.
Small pieces of the aircraft and other debris have also been found, but there has been no sign of the crucial voice and flight data recorders – the so-called black boxes that investigators hope will unravel the sequence of events in the cockpit during the doomed jet’s final minutes.
Search and rescue agency chief Soelistyo told a news conference in Jakarta that two large objects were found just before midnight on Friday.
The first object measured 9.4 metres by 4.8 metres by 0.4 metres, while the second is 7.2 metres by 0.5 metres, he said.
Soelistyo said operating ROVs was problematic due to the large waves in the area that have hampered operations for much of the week, but that divers were preparing to search for the objects.
The cause of the crash, the first suffered by the AirAsia group since the budget operator began flying in 2002, is unexplained.
The plane was flying at 32,000 feet and the pilot had asked to climb to 38,000 feet just before contact was lost. When air traffic controllers granted permission to fly at 34,000 feet a few minutes later there was no response.
A source close to the investigation said radar data appeared to show the aircraft made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the A320’s limits.
