QZ8501: Fuel slick and wreckage found
By Geoffrey Thomas Sat Jan 3, 2015
Indonesian authorities claim they have found part of the fuselage of Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 that went missing over a week ago with 162 souls aboard.
Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency said that five large pieces have been detected by sonar. “The biggest piece, measuring 18 metres long and 5.4 metres wide, appeared to be part of the jet’s body,” said Bambang Soelistyo.
CNN says one object measures 9.2 x 4.6 x 0.5 meters (30 x 15 x 1.6 feet), a second measures 7.2 x 0.5 meters (24 x 1.6 feet) a third is 18 meters x 5.4 meters (59ft x 17.7ft) and a fourth according to the BBC is 9.8 metres by 1.10 metres (32ft x 3ft).
While the A320 would have likely broken up on hitting the water the cabin is just 3.7 meters wide – not 5.4meters. The A320 is 27.5 meters long.
Naval experts warn that the Java Sea is littered with wreckage from WW11 and previous claims of the plane being discovered have proved incorrect.
Divers have tried to find the wreckage but say that the visibility is zero but conditions ae improving.
90 divers from Indonesia and Russia are being deployed.
The search for the black boxes has now started with a pinger locator being deployed.
So far 37 have been recovered.
The Indonesian authorities also say they have discovered a fuel slick from the missing plane.
All told there are 30 ships and the same number of planes and helicopters involved in the search.
A new 14-page report released by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency claims weather is a major factor in the crash.
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