Crash investigators looking at the tragic loss of Indonesia Air Asia flight QZ8501 say they have found no evidence of terrorism or pilot suicide.
Commenting on the initial download of the Cockpit Voice Recorder, the lead investigator, Professor Mardjono Siswosuwarno, told media that “so far, there’s no sign of terrorist activity.”
He added that there are no indications of “gunfire or threats.”
Nurcahyo Utomo, another investigator from Indonesia’s Transportation Safety Committee told Reuters that nothing heard on the audio recording so far suggested pilot suicide played a role in the crash.
However, Reuters said that neither investigator would disclose precisely what the pilots said on the tape but their comments indicated that “basically, they were flying the plane.”
“So far we’ve managed to transcribe only half of [the cockpit voice recorder] because there are so many noises,” Utomo told Reuters.
Flight QZ 8501 crashed into the JavaSea on December 28 with 162 passengers and crew aboard on a flight from Surabaya to Singapore.
Separately Indonesian search teams are considering using a crane to recover the fuselage of the Indonesia AirAsia A320.
However the weather is still hampering divers in their efforts to recover the plane according to search operation director Suryadi Supriyadi.
“There’s still no significant progress so far,” he told AFP.
So far 53 bodies have been found. There have been no survivors.
