Search for AirAsia jet’s black box could ‘take a week’

Heavy seas held back divers waiting to inspect the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo on Thursday and an aviation official said it could be a week before the black box flight recorders are found.

Dozens of divers were on standby to investigate a large shadow sighted by a search and rescue pilot which it is believed may be the Airbus A320-200 that 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 said on Twitter. "Please all hope together. This is so important."

Toos Sanitiyoso, an air safety investigator with the National Committee for Transportation Safety, said it could take a week to find the black box, 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.

Committee head Tatang Kurniadi said the focus of the search, once the waters calm as expected in five days, would be around the shadow.

“We are backtracking from where the wreckage was found to where the plane had its last reading and that is the focus of our search,” he said. “The depth around here is 50m. No specialist equipment (is required). Divers can go get it.”

But officials made clear there had been no confirmation that the sighted object was the missing plane.

Investigators are working on a theory that the plane stalled as it climbed steeply to avoid a storm about 40 minutes into the flight.

So far, at least seven bodies have been recovered from waters near the suspected crash site, along with debris such a suitcase, an emergency slide and a life jacket.

The bodies are being taken in numbered coffins to Surabaya, where relatives of the victims have gathered, for identification. Authorities have been collecting DNA from relatives to help identify the bodies.

"We are asking universities to work with us - from the whole country," said Anton Castilani, executive director at Indonesia's disaster victims identification committee.

Most of those on board were Indonesians. No survivors have been found.

An AirAsia flight attendant (49) identified by the name tag on her red uniform was the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family.

Hayati Lutfiah Hamid's identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Colonel Budiyono of East Java's Disaster Victim Identification Unit. She has since been buried. Three members of her family were also on board the plane.

“Their house has been in a panic since Sunday,” Umaroyah, a neighbour, said. “Everyone in the neighbourhood knows someone who was on that plane.”

The plane was travelling at 32,000 feet (9,753 metres) and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather. When air traffic controllers granted permission for a rise to 34,000 feet a few minutes later, they received no response.

A source close to the probe into what happened said radar data appeared to show that the aircraft made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the Airbus A320’s limits.

The Indonesian captain, a former air force fighter pilot, had 6,100 flying hours under his belt and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, according to AirAsia Indonesia, which is 49-per cent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia.

Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the country’s aviation industry and spooked travellers.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared in March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline's Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.

Separately, an AirAsia Indonesia pilot was taken off flying duties on the route from Jakarta to the holiday island of Bali on Thursday after a urine test indicated traces of morphine, which the company said was taken because of an illness.

Reuters