Oil Tanker Deployed to AirAsia QZ8501 Rescue Operation Areas

Liputan6.com, Jakarta The rescue mission on AirAsia QZ8501 intensified. As weather and other factors continue to interfere in the operations, the head of Basarnas Madya Bambang Soelistyo will have a ship carrying fuel (BBM) to be sent to the site. The tanker is a reflection of the working unit of gas and oil (SKK Migas) continually effective contribution on finding remaining of AirAsia flight QZ8501.

"I will have a tanker carrying fuel from SKK Migas," Soelistyo said during a press conference at Basarnas office, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, Thursday (1/1/2015).

Soelistyo explains how the tanker filled with fuel will be used to refill SAR’s vessels/ships in the areas where search operation is being conducted. Thus, those vessels don’t have to waste their time and energy by coming back to the coast to refill their fuel.

"In order to be time-efficient, I have also dispatched horse ship to handle any situation on the field, also help from the working unit of gas and oil (SKK Migas)," he added.

Apart from Basarnas efforts, Indonesian Navy has also been instructed to deploy its own tanker vessel to the site. The one belonging to Indonesian Navy is called KRI Sorong. On the fifth day of rescue operation, the joint SAR team has found a number of deceased passengers and evacuated the 9 of them. 6 bodies have been sent to Surabaya, 2 still at Pangkalan Bun and the last one is sill at KRI Yos Sudarso.

Apart from the discovery of deceased passengers, SAR team also encountered a number of objects and debris proven to belong to the missing AirAsia QZ8501. Those evidence were found around sector V, near Karimata strait and Pangkalan Bun.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 en route Surabaya-Singapore went missing after losing contact with the Soekarno- Hatta Air Traffic Controller (ATC) on 28 December 2014 at around 6.17 am local time. The plane flew from Juanda International airport, Surabaya at 05.20 am local time but never actually made it to Changi Airport, Singapore.

The Airbus A320-200 with the registration of PK-AXC was piloted by Captain Iriyanto and co-piloted by Remi Emmanuel Plesel, along with 4 cabin crew, Wanti Setiawati, Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar Desano, Wismoyo Ari Prambudi, and one technician Saiful Rakhmad.

The low-cost airplane was carrying 155 people, which include 138 adults, 16 children an 1 baby. Most of the passengers were Indonesian, with the rest of them coming from various nations such as Malaysia, Singapore, France, UK and South Korea. (Akp/Tnt)