SAR team detects AirAsia tailplane: Basarnas chief

JAKARTA. The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Air Chief Marshal FH Bambang Soelistyo says that the joint search and rescue (SAR) operation team has just detected the tailplane of AirAsia QZ8501’s Airbus A320 plane, which struck the waters off Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan.

“We detected the tailplane at 10:30 a.m. today [Wednesday] in the additional sector of the second priority zone of the search area,” Bambang told the press in a conference at the Basarnas headquarters in Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

The tailplane is a crucial part of every aircraft since it contains the black box. The box itself contains Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and Flight Data Recorder (FDR), two important elements for the investigation into the accident.

“The Frogmen [the military diving team] are preparing to dive to the seabed at this moment,” he said.

As of the 11th day of the SAR operation, he said that the team had recovered more bodies since last night, bringing the total figure to 40 bodies.

The AirAsia QZ8501 had 162 people onboard including one infant.