RSN ship finds main portion of stricken AirAsia plane

SINGAPORE — Seventeen days after it crashed into the Java Sea, the fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501 was located yesterday by a Republic of Singapore Navy ship, raising hopes that more bodies will be found.

The wreckage, measuring 26m in length, was picked up by the MV Swift Rescue’s sonar about 2km from where the passenger jet’s tail was located last weekend, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post yesterday.

Attaching images showing part of the wing and words on the fuselage that were taken by the Remotely Operated Vehicle despatched by the ship, the minister wrote: “The accident is a tragic event resulting in the loss of many lives. I hope that with the fuselage located, some form of closure can come to the families of the victims to ease their grief.”

Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency was notified after the visual confirmation. Its head Bambang Soelistyo has said divers will check the wreckage for bodies today.

A marker has also been placed on the engine, which was located beside the fuselage, the part of the plane that holds pilots and passengers. “Beside the engine is the fuselage, the wing and a lot of debris,” Mr Ony Soeryo Wibowo, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Committee, told Reuters.

QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control in bad weather on Dec 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from the city of Surabaya to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

So far, 50 bodies have been plucked from the Java Sea, with most taken to Surabaya for identification. Searchers believe more bodies will be found in the plane’s fuselage.

In a later post yesterday, Dr Ng attached an audio clip of a telephone conversation he had with the commander of the Singapore Armed Forces task group for underwater search operations on the MV Swift Rescue, Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Chow Khim Chong, who described what happened after they detected the fuselage.

“I would like to thank all our Singapore Armed Forces servicemen who have given this mission their all to help the Indonesians recover the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, and the fuselage. Especially to the crew of MV Swift Rescue, you never gave up — well done,” Dr Ng wrote. 

In a Facebook post today, Dr Ng added that in addition to finding the main wreckage, Republic of Singapore Navy divers went "one step further", by marking the site with buoys to make it easier for subsequent recovery teams to find.