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Ten days after the crash, searchers find the tail section of AirAsia flight 8501. Katie Sargent reports
Video provided by Reuters Newslook
An Indonesian officer observes as a Malaysian navy vessel is seen during rescue operations for AirAsia QZ8501 in Karimata strait on Tuesday.(Photo: Veri Sanovri, AFP/Getty Images)
The tail section of the AirAsia flight that crashed more than a week ago has been found in the Java Sea, Indonesia's search and rescue chief announced Wednesday, in the first confirmed sighting of wreckage from the missing jetliner that went down with 162 people on board.
Divers, whose efforts have been hindered for days by bad weather, and an unmanned underwater vehicle spotted the debris and managed to photograph it, National Search and Rescue chief Henry Soelistyo told reporters. One of the released underwater photos clearly shows an upside "A" on a piece of metal.
"Today we successfully discovered the part of the plane that became the main aim since yesterday," Soelistyo said. "I can ensure that this is part of the tail with the AirAsia mark on it."
The discovery of the tail section of Flight 8501 is good news, because that is where the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, otherwise known as the black boxes, are located in the Airbus A320.
AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted: "I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there." He continued: "We need to find all parts soon so we can find all out guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority."
I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there.
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) January 7, 2015
Soelistyo said recovering the bodies of more crash victims is a top priority in addition to retrieving the black boxes. So far, 40 corpses have been found, including one on Wednesday.
Bodies begin to sink after two weeks and those that have been recovered already show serious signs of decomposition, Anton Castilani, head of the country's disaster identification victim unit, said.
The airline said Wednesday it will offer family members about $100,000 in compensation for each passenger, in addition to the $24,000 offered to families to help them with immediate financial hardship, CNN reported.
USA TODAY COLLEGE
Students abroad in China react to AirAsia Flight 8501 disappearance
An American ship, the USS Fort Worth, spotted two large metal objects using sonar at a depth of 92 feet, Tuesday. It is unclear if one of those objects was the tail section spotted Wednesday.
Five other large objects possibly from the plane have been detected on the ocean floor but strong currents, silt and mud have kept searchers from getting a clear view of them.
What caused the plane to crash is still not known, though Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency says bad weather appears to have been a factor and that icing is a likely culprit.
During the flight, the pilots had asked permission to climb to avoid storm clouds. Other aircraft were in the vicinity, so air-traffic controllers denied the request. Minutes later the jet vanished without giving a distress signal.
Contributing: The Associated Press; Jane Onyanga-Omara, Oren Dorrell and William M. Welch, USA TODAY
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