Salvage teams are starting to try to
raise the fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into the Java Sea
last month killing all 162 people on board. The Airbus A320 left Surabaya in Indonesia
for Singapore at 0535 local time on December 28, and vanished nearly half-way
into the two hour flight.
The salvage operation has been
delayed by bad weather, and so far only 69 bodies have been recovered. Indonesian
officials believe the aircraft may have climbed too fast to try to avoid a
storm, then stalled.
Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said
radar data showed the Airbus had climbed at a speed of 6,000ft a minute, a rate
that could only be achieved by a fighter jet, and was at least three times what
a commercial airliner would normally do.
Shortly before it disappeared, the
pilot asked air traffic control for permission to climb from 32,000 to 38,000
feet to avoid some big storm clouds. Because of heavy traffic in the area, he
was not immediately given permission, and when air traffic control tried to
contact the crew again, there was no answer. The aircraft disappeared from
radar screens soon afterwards, without sending a distress signal.
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