Four Large Parts of AirAsia Jet Found

Authorities found a number of bodies floating in the Java Sea on Tuesday, just six miles from where AirAsia’s Flight 8501 disappeared three days earlier, according to National Search and Rescue Director SB Supriyadi. Indonesian navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir told Agence France-Presse that 40 bodies had been recovered and that the number was growing. AirAsia also confirmed that debris discovered in the Karimata Strait is from the plane. Search and rescue teams discovered the bodies after several pieces of red, white, and black debris were spotted off the coast of Borneo island. AirAsia CEO Tony Fenandes tweeted, “My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am.”

Four large parts of the AirAsia passenger jet that crashed with 162 people on board have been found at the bottom of the Java Sea, according to the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency. The discovery came as authorities said that Indonesia AirAsia had violated the terms of its license with Flight QZ8501 by flying on a Sunday. No survivors have been found from the crash. Indonesia’s weather bureau reported it was likely that the plane ran into bad weather, which may have caused ice to form on its engines.

Who flies into a storm 

IN THE latest incident to hit an AirAsia flight departing from Surabaya, the engine of a plane failed just before it took off from Juanda International Airport in the Indonesian city, local news media reported.

The plane had been taxiing for 2m to 3m before takeoff when the engine suddenly died, horrifying passengers, who heard a loud sound, Indonesia's Metro TV reported.

Thankfully, the Bandung-bound plane made it back to the gate and the 120 passengers on board were then asked to disembark while the plane underwent repairs, Indonesia's Metro TV reported.

Passenger Yusuf Fitriadi told Metro TV that a man clad in pilots' uniform told passengers waiting at the terminal that the starter monitor had malfunctioned.

"The plane was ready and moved, but suddenly a loud sound was heard, the sound of the engine disappeared and the plane moved backwards. We were shocked and panicked.

"The plane was then pulled back to where it parked and we were asked by the stewardess to leave the plane," the passenger was quoted by Metro TV as saying.

The plane was supposed to have departed at 9pm local time on Saturday.

Mr Yusuf said that the airline later told passengers that the flight would be resumed after the issue had been attended to, but about 90 per cent of them refused to reboard the plane, fearing that the fault would reoccur during the flight.

AirAsia then refunded the plane fare of those passengers who had declined to continue with the flight, Metro TV reported.

(Reuters) - Bad weather forced divers trying to identify sunken wreckage from a crashed AirAsia passenger jet to abort their mission on Sunday and Indonesian officials said they had not yet picked up any signals from the lost plane's "black box".
Indonesia's meteorological agency has said seasonal tropical storms probably contributed to last Sunday's crash and the weather has persistently hampered efforts to recover bodies and find the cockpit voice and flight data recorders that may explain why the Airbus A320-200 plunged into the sea."Conditions did not allow diving operations," the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news conference in Jakarta. "Our priority is to dive in the location we suspect parts of the plane to be."Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea about 40 minutes after taking off last Sunday from Indonesia's second-largest city Surabaya en route for Singapore. There were no survivors.The main focus of the search is about 90 nautical miles off the coast of Borneo island, where five large objects believed to be parts of the plane -- the largest about 18 meters (59 feet) long -- have been pinpointed by ships using sonar."Based on past experience, the black box is not far from the plane debris we have found," Soelistyo said. But he added that none of the searching ships had detected any "pings", the locator signals the black box should transmit after a crash.Until investigators can examine the black box recorders the cause of the crash remains a mystery, but the area is known for intense seasonal storms. BMKG, Indonesia's meteorological agency, has said bad weather may have caused ice to form on the aircraft's engines."The flight document provided by the BMKG office shows fairly worrying weather conditions for the aircraft at cruising level on the chosen route," the agency said in a report.

BREAKING: Indonesian official confirms tail of missing AirAsia plane found in Java Sea.