Singapore Yields Underwater Detector for AirAsia Rescue Mission

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Head of Indonesian Search and Rescue team (BASARNAS) Madya Bambang Soelistyo said a joint team of SAR will receive help from Singapore as they receive crucial tools which able to detect objects underwater. Those instruments will be sent to Indonesia to help hasten the search and evacuate operation for AirAsia QZ8501.

"Tomorrow, we will receive aid from Singapore in the form of tools that could detect objects underwater. So tomorrow we will make good use of it as soon as we receive it," Soelistyo said during a press conference at Basarnas office, Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, Thursday (1/1/2015).

Entering the fifth day of search mission, the joint SAR team has already discovered and evacuated a total of 9 deceased passengers of AirAsia QZ8501. 6 bodies have been flown to Surabaya, East Java, 2 bodies are currently on their way to Juanda airport and the last one is still at KRI Yos Sudarso.

Apart from the discovery, the joint team has since found a number of objects and debris belonging to AirAsia QZ8501. The collected evidence were mostly found floating around sector V, that is the northern part of Java Sea close to Karimata Strait and Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.

AirAsia QZ8501 was announced missing at lost contact with the Soekarno- Hatta airport air traffic controller on Sunday 28 December 2014 at approximately 06.17 am local time. The flight has departed from Juanda Airport, Surabaya at 05.20 am local time and set to arrive at Changi airport at 8.30 am local time. The airbus A320-200 type of aircraft with the registration number of PK-AXC was piloted by Captain Iriyanto and Co-piloted by Remi Emmanuel Plesel, along with four cabin crew, Wanti Setiawati, Kahirunisa HaidarFauzi, Oscar Desano, Wismoyo Ari Prambudi and I technician Siful Rakhmad.

The plane was carrying 155 passengers, 138 were adults and the rest fell into the category of children and a baby. Most of the victims are Indonesian with 1 Singaporean, 1 British, 1 Malaysian, and 3 South Korean. (Akp/Tnt)