Search for 16 Philippine Bulk Jupiter sailors missing off southern Vietnam underway

Vietnamese rescue forces and vessels from other countries are searching for 16 missing Philippine crew members aboard a Bahamas-flagged ship considered sunk off southern Vietnam on Friday morning.

There were 19 Philippine crew members aboard the Bulk Jupiter when it departed from Malaysia, the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (Vietnam MRCC) said, adding that one has been saved and two bodies have been found.

Currently, Vietnamese vessel SAR 413 is guiding Liberia’s ZIM ASIA, Oman’s tugboat OLNG Muttrah, Singapore’s tugboat Kota Nekad, and Sea Land Meteor of China’s Hong Kong in the search for the Bulk Jupiter and the missing sailors.

The Bulk Jupiter is thought to have wrecked as it has yet to be found after the Vietnamese rescue force received SOS messages from the vessel at 7:00 am on Friday, when it was about 150 nautical miles off the southern Vietnamese city of Vung Tau, the Vietnam MRCC said.

After receiving the emergency signals, the Vietnam MRCC issued a maritime notice asking for help from vessels nearby and sent SAR 413 to the scene to begin rescue activities, which were later joined by the above foreign ships.

At 2:10 pm on Friday afternoon, OLNG Muttrah saved one sailor and found a body drifting at sea. The rescued person is the cook and the body has been identified as the Bulk Jupiter captain.

About 30 minutes later, the Kota Nekad reported it had found a corpse confirmed to be a crew member.

The Vietnam National Committee for Search and Rescue said it has proposed that the Defense Ministry dispatch the HQ608 – a naval ship – to the scene to support the SAR 413 in the ongoing search.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam MRCC said on Friday night that the owner of the Bulk Jupiter will send a representative from Singapore to Vietnam to coordinate with it in the search efforts.

The Bulk Jupiter was in distress when it was transporting 46,400 tons of iron ore from Malaysia to China, the Vietnam MRCC said.

Saturday 3 January 2015

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/25135/search-for-16-philippine-bulk-jupiter-sailors-missing-off-southern-vietnam-underway

Norman Atlantic ferry: Search to resume for victims

Rescue workers are to resume a search on the Norman Atlantic ferry, nearly a week after it caught fire while sailing from Greece to Italy.

Firefighters and investigators boarded the boat on Friday after it was towed into the Italian port of Brindisi.

They recovered a "black box" recorder, but said it was not yet safe to enter the car deck where the fire started.

It is not clear what caused the blaze, which killed at least 11 people. Up to 19 are said to still be missing.

It took rescuers more than two days to extract 477 survivors from the burning ferry, mostly by helicopter.

The Italian prosecutor leading the investigation into the cause of the fire, Giuseppe Volpe, has said he fears that the bodies of would-be illegal migrants could be found in the hold.

The Norman Atlantic was still smouldering and listing visibly as it was tugged into Brindisi's port on Friday.

"There are cars and trucks and other things that are still slowly burning," said Brindisi Fire Commander Michele Angiuli, adding that this "could still go ahead for a long time".

An investigating magistrate, Ettore Cardinali, told journalists as he left the boat that it had not been possible to reach the car deck.

"For safety reasons, we cannot verify first hand what's inside," he said.



Greek authorities have said that up to 19 people are missing. Mr Volpe said on Friday that about 10 to 15 people were unaccounted for, having earlier said dozens might be missing.

The captain, owner and operator of the ship as well as three crew members are reported to have been placed under investigation by an Italian court over the fire.

Earlier in the week, two Albanian seamen were killed on a tugboat towing the ferry after they were struck by a connecting cable.

The ferry was sailing from Patras in Greece to the Italian city of Ancona when it caught fire on Sunday.

Passengers described being trapped between the the burning heat of the fire below deck and freezing rain and huge waves.

Survivors said people had fought for spaces in lifeboats and helicopter baskets, and complained that the crew seemed overwhelmed by events.

Saturday 3 January 2015

AirAsia QZ8501: Search teams 'find two large objects'

Search teams scouring the Java Sea for the wreckage of AirAsia flight QZ8501 have found "two large objects", Indonesian officials say.

Search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo said an underwater vehicle was being lowered to take pictures.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian weather agency has said that bad weather was the "biggest factor" behind the crash.

The jet disappeared with 162 people on board while flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore last Sunday.

So far 30 bodies have been recovered in the search. No survivors have been found and the main sections of the Airbus A320 have not been retrieved.

Most bodies are thought to have been trapped in the plane's fuselage.

Mr Soelistyo said on Saturday that the large objects had been detected by sonar from an Indonesian navy ship.

"We found oil slicks and huge objects at 23:40 (16:40 GMT) last night. I am confident these are parts of the missing AirAsia plane that we are looking for," he said.

He said the larger of the objects was 10 metres by five (32ft by 16ft) but that strong currents made operating the underwater vehicle difficult.

"As I speak we are lowering an ROV (remotely operated underwater vehicle) to get an actual picture of the objects detected on the sea floor. All are at the depth of 30 metres."

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes at the forward operating base in Pangkalan Bun says it seems this could be the breakthrough search teams have been hoping for.

The cause of the crash is not yet known. Specialist equipment has arrived to the search for the plane's "black box" flight recorders, though officials say no signals have been picked up yet.



An initial analysis by Indonesian weather agency BMKG has found that conditions at the time of the plane's disappearance suggest it likely flew into a storm.

"From our data it looks like the last location of the plane had very bad weather and it was the biggest factor behind the crash," said Professor Edvin Aldrian, head of research at BMKG.

He said there was evidence of extremely icy conditions at the plane's altitude, which can "stall the engines of the plane and freeze and damage the plane's machinery."

Officials have said the plane was travelling at 32,000ft when it requested to climb to 38,000ft to avoid bad weather.

Some investigators are reported to believe that the plane may have gone into an aerodynamic stall as the pilot climbed steeply.

Saturday 3 January 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30664604

Search team recovers 30 bodies from missing AirAsia flight

Colonel Yayan Sofiyan, commander of the warship Bung Tomo, says five of the victims were found still strapped in their seats when they were retrieved from the Java Sea and taken to an Indonesian vessel on Friday.

Meanwhile it has been confirmed that a French investigation team will use sonar equipment and metal detectors to scour the seabed for wreckage, including the plane's black box - which could reveal what caused the tragedy.

Rescuers hope the fuselage - if intact - will contain the remains of many of the 162 people still missing after the plane travelling from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore vanished and later crashed on Sunday.

No survivors have been found and investigators hope the wreckage will be key to explaining what might have caused Flight QZ8501 to go down.

Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo, said: "We will focus on underwater detection."

He also explained that ships from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the US had been on the scene since before dawn today to try and pinpoint wreckage and the all-important flight data and cockpit voice recorders.

The data recorder contains crucial information such as engine temperature, vertical and horizontal speed and hundreds of other measurements.

The voice recorder would have captured conversations between pilots and other sounds coming from the cockpit.

Mr Soelistyo said bad weather, which has hindered the search for the past several days, remained a concern.

However he vowed to recover the bodies of "our brothers and sisters whatever conditions we face."

Drizzle and light clouds covered the area this morning, but rain, strong winds and high waves up to 4 metres (13 feet) were forecast until Sunday. Strong sea currents have also kept debris moving.

Meanwhile Toos Saniotoso, an Indonesian air safety investigator, said investigators "are looking at every aspect" as they try to determine why the plane crashed.

He added: "From the operational side, the human factor, the technical side, the ATC (air-traffic control) - everything is valuable to us."Several more bodies were recovered by a US Navy ship today, bringing the total found to 30.

Four have been identified and returned to their families.

A helicopter from the USS Sampson brought the corpses to Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia - the town nearest to the plane's suspected crash site - where they were were unloaded and driven away in ambulances.

Meanwhile, a number of ships holding sensitive equipment arrived at the scene this morning to hunt for the plane's fuselage.

As the investigation continues nine planes, many with metal detecting equipment, have scoured a 13,500-square-kilometres (8,380-square-mile) area off Pangkalan Bun.

Two Japanese ships with three helicopters are also understood to be on their way.

The fuselage could be at an estimated 25 metres to 30 metres (about 80 feet to 100 feet) underwater.

Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi said as soon as the wreckage is found, divers will be sent down to recover the passengers and crew.

Four crash victims have been identified and returned to their families.

They include the first, Hayati Lutfiah Hamid, who was found on Thursday and flight attendant Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi and passengers Kevin Alexander Soetjipto and Grayson Herbert Linaksita who were found on Friday.

The first burial took place yesterday after the body of female flight attendant Hayati Lutfiah Hamid was released, to weeping family members at a local hospital. Three other members of her family who were on board the flight have yet to be found.

Ms Hamid, 49, was buried in a traditional Islamic ceremony in a cemetery a few miles from the airport.

Saturday 3 January 2015

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/549810/AirAsia-plane-crash-bodies-found-underwater-investigation