Indonesia search team fails to lift plane fuselage for 2nd time

Indonesian rescue teams have failed for a second time to retrieve the fuselage of the ill-fated AirAsia plane that crashed deep into the Java Sea last month.

The fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501 surfaced for only two minutes on Sunday before a rope tore apart during a sudden change in weather, said an Indonesian Navy official overseeing the search and rescue operation, Rear Admiral Widodo.

“We managed to float (the fuselage) and we were about to move it to the tugboat when the rope snapped due to an extreme change in the weather,” added Widodo, who goes by one name.

During the attempt, one of the bodies on the victims still trapped in the fuselage fell out of it before it sunk down to the seabed.

A day before, rescue teams had also failed to raise the fuselage during an initial attempt. Several bodies also fell from the plane during that botched maneuver.

Divers entered the main section of the fuselage for the first time on January 23.

The plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were found last week.

A preliminary report on the crash is expected to be filed within a week. However, experts say a full investigation will take months.

On December 28, 2014, the Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320 disappeared en route to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia, with 155 passengers and seven crew members on board. The plane was later found to have crashed in the Java Sea.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics has said that bad weather was the key factor behind the crash, specifically pointing to icy conditions as the likely cause of engine failure.

GMA/HJL/SS

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