AirAsia search to continue for one more week

The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has agreed to extend search operations for the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 victims for another week, giving families hope that more bodies may be recovered.

Forty-year-old Dwiyanto, father of 16-year-old Bima Ali Wicaksana, one of the passengers on the ill-fated plane, said he was holding out hope that his son’s body would be found.

“I hope they will find my son’s remains so I can bury him properly at our family cemetery in Surabaya [East Java]. This is a burden that I have as a father who has lost a son,” Dwiyanto told The Jakarta Post after a closed-door meeting with Basarnas and government representatives in Surabaya on Tuesday.

Dwiyanto acknowledged that Basarnas personnel had done their best so far.

The downsized search effort, according to Basarnas head Air Chief Marshal FH Bambang Soelistyo, will commence on Tuesday, Feb. 3 and end on Feb. 15.

“We have agreed to officially end the major search and rescue operation, but we are going to continue with a smaller operation for one more week,” Bambang told reporters after a closed-door meeting at the East Java Police headquarters.

“The [smaller] operation is [being undertaken] to respect the [wishes of] families. But after the period is over, we will cease the operation completely, “ he said.

Identifying the recovered bodies, however, would continue, he said.

Throughout the two-month operation, search workers have located 107 bodies. Of the 107, only four have yet to be identified.

Bambang said previously that the agency had expended maximum effort in the operation and that past experiences showed it was impossible that every passenger on board the crashed plane would be found.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed into the sea off South Kalimantan with 167 people on board — including seven crew members — on its way from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec. 28 last year.

The plane carried 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a Singaporean, a Briton, and a French national.

The search and rescue operation began the day the plane was reported missing. Operations were supposed to last just 30 days but Basarnas and the Indonesian Military (TNI) agreed to extend the search past the Jan. 28 deadline.

The operation was also aided by delegations from several foreign countries, including neighbors Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, as well as China, India, Japan, Russia and the US.

Debris and bodies were found three days after the crash, with the plane’s flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) recovered 17 days into the operation.

On Monday, Basarnas handed over the plane’s fuselage, which was recovered on Feb. 27, and transported it from the Karimata Strait aboard the Crest Onyx vessel to the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) in Jakarta for further examination.

According to a preliminary report from the KNKT, the plane’s copilot, first officer Remi Emmanuel Plesel, was in control of the plane before it rapidly climbed and then stalled.

Capt. Iriyanto, an experienced former fighter pilot was serving in a supervising role at the time of the crash.

No cause for the crash has been determined, but officials have previously said inclement weather likely played a role.

Wednesday 4 March 2015

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/04/airasia-search-continue-one-more-week.html