Two Pieces Of AirAsia Flight 8501 Found, Search Continues For Survivors, Black Box

Search teams equipped with powerful sonar systems have found two large objects, believed to be debris from AirAsia Flight 8501, on the bottom of the Java Sea. The announcement comes after rescuers recovered 30 passengers from the crashed airplane. Experts are still debating the most likely cause(s) for the wreck.

According to the AP, the objects sit on the bottom of the Java Sea, sitting roughly 30 meters apart. Officials say the search ships found the items thanks to specialized sonar. According to ABC News, the objects are 7.2 by 0.5 meters wide and 9.4 by 4.8 by 0.4 meters long, and widely believed to be pieces from AirAsia’s missing flight 8501.

National Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said that a remotely operated submersible will now be deployed to confirm the find. The retrieval operation has been stalled due to poor weather. Once the parts are on dry land, experts may finally be able to piece together the mystery surrounding the crash.

The critical piece of evidence crews need to find is the black box, or better yet, a survivor.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, a military jet pilot believes AirAsia flight 8501 likely attempted to land on the sea, only to be broken up by large waves.

The basis for his theory focuses on the emergency locator transmitter (ELT).

During an impact, the ELT is designed to immediately start transmitting an emergency signal, but Flight 8501 never did. A possible explanation may be that the AirAsia pilot managed a somewhat successful emergency landing on the high seas, only to have that moment of triumph taken away by the destructive forces of the ocean.

Nevertheless, an emergency landing, even an only partially successful one, would more likely leave survivors wading through the ocean. Yet, search and rescue teams have recovered nothing but bodies.

Rescue teams made the grim recovery of 30 dead Flight 8501 passengers. Navy ships, offering their services in the crisis, have found most of the bodies so far.

The tragedy began on Sunday, when Flight 8501 went down with 162 passengers and crew onboard. Minutes before the wreck, the pilot radioed air controllers, saying the plane was approaching heavy clouds, and he asked for permission to fly above them. Controllers denied the request due to heavy air traffic.

The resulting crash is the worst in AirAsia’s history; it started operation in 2001.

Now, the friends and families of AirAsia’s passengers must wait to see if the wreckage at the bottom of the Java Sea will give them answers about the fate of Flight 8501.

[Image Credit: Mehdi Nazarinia/Wikimedia Commons]