Divers waiting to inspect the possible wreck of the AirAsia Indonesia jet off the coast of Borneo, were unable to resume operations because of heavy seas earlier today and an aviation official said it could take a week to find the black box flight recorders.
Crews were on standby to descend to a large object detected by sonar on the ocean floor, lying just 30-50 metres deep. Rescuers believe it is the Airbus A320-200, which was carrying 162 people when it crashed on Sunday en route from the city of Surabaya to Singapore.
“I am hoping that the latest information is correct and aircraft has been found,” airline boss Tony Fernandes tweeted today. “Please all hope together. This is so important.”
However, Toos Sanitiyoso, an air safety investigator with the National Committee for Transportation Safety, said the black box flight data and voice recorders could be found within a week, suggesting there was still doubt over the plane’s location.
“The main thing is to find the main area of the wreckage and then the black box,” he told reporters. None of the tell-tale black box “pings” had been detected, he said.
Frogman commander Lieutenant Edi Tirkayasa said the weather was making the operation extra hard.
“What is most difficult is finding the location where the plane fell – checking whether the aircraft is really there,” he said. “This is very difficult even with sophisticated equipment. With weather like this, who knows? We are still hopeful and optimistic that they’ll find it. They must.”
Once the Black Box is recovered, the mystery behind the crash may be finally unraveled.
