The weather improved Monday and divers will attempt again to locate large objects on the ocean floor believed to be the fuselage of the AirAsia flight that crashed more than one week ago, killing all 162 on board. At least 37 bodies have been found, AP reported. At least five ships with equipment that can detect the plane's black boxes have been deployed to the area where the suspected plane parts were spotted, said Suryadi B. Supriyadi, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue director of operations.
"If it cannot be done by divers, we will use sophisticated equipment with capabilities of tracking underwater objects and then will lift them up," Supriyadi said. Five large objects – the biggest measuring 18 meters (59 feet) long and 5.4 meters (18 feet) wide and believed to be the fuselage – have been detected, and Supriyadi repeated that officials expect that many passengers and crew will be found trapped inside."But today's searching mission is still, once again, depend on the weather," he said.
Divers tried to reach the site on Sunday, but rolling seas stirred up silt and mud, leaving them with zero visibility.
Bodies Found
Only 37 bodies have been found and investigators believe most of the dead are still underwater strapped into their seats.
The AirAsia salvage operationshifted Monday to focus on recovering the aircraft’s flight data recorders, otherwise known as black boxes. Only 37 bodies have so far been recovered from the 155 passengers and seven crew aboard Flight QZ 8501, which vanished from radar 42 minutes after departing Indonesia’s second city of Surabaya bound for Singapore early Dec. 28.
According to Supriyadi, at least five ships with black box pinger locators have been dispatched to where four large objects, believed to be wreckage from the plane, were spotted by sonar. Once triangulation of black box signals has been achieved, and conditions sufficiently improve, a team of more than 80 deep-sea divers will be deployed to get visual confirmation. On Sunday, divers had to abandon their forays after being confronted with near zero visibility in the murky depths.
“If it cannot be done by divers, we will use sophisticated equipment with capabilities of tracking underwater objects and then will lift them up,” Supriyadi told reporters, according to the Associated Press.
