Search expands, plane presumed at sea bottom
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E-mail Xinhua, December 29, 2014
The search and rescue operation for a missing AirAsia plane expanded on Monday with more countries joining the sea and aerial search while an Indonesian official assumed that the ill-fated jetliner is likely at the bottom of the sea.
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An AirAsia plane. [File photo] |
Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency told the media that the missing jet with 162 people on board is believed to have sunken into the bottom of the sea based on the coordinates given and evaluations.
"Because the coordinate that was given to us and the evolution from the calculation point of the flight track is at sea, our early conjecture is that the plane is at the bottom of the sea," said Bambang Sulistyo, head of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency.
Should the projection be true, Indonesia needs to cooperate with other countries to bring the wreckage to the surface, he added.
The Airbus A320-200 disappeared Sunday en route from Surabaya in Indonesia's east Java to Singapore after the pilot requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather.
The flight lost contact with the ground after the air traffic control consented to the pilot's request to change flight route but it did not approve the request to raise its height to 34,000 feet (10,303 meters).
The aircraft, which sent no distress signal, must have run out its fuel if it kept flying. said Djoko Murjatmodjo, director general of air transport of Indonesian Transport Ministry.
Aircraft and ships from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia have been deployed to assist Indonesia's search efforts, which is centered on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea across from Kalimantan on Borneo island.
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