Eerie photographs have shown the wreckage of AirAsia flight QZ8501 lying on the bottom of the Java Sea.
Images show pieces of the jet including what appears to be the tail fin showing the AirAsia logo and possibly an interior section of the cabin. Divers and an unmanned underwater vehicle spotted the missing plane’s tail. It’s here that also usually houses the ‘black box’ flight data recorders which will be crucial to determining the cause of the crash.
The haunting pictures revealed on Wednesday come as Indonesian aviation authorities denied officials took bribes to allow airlines to alter their flight schedules amid allegations some were paid to approve unscheduled take-offs, including that of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501.
ABC News reported that Bambang Soelitsyo, the chief of Basarnas, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, confirmed that recovery teams found the tail of the plane in the Java Sea.
‘We have successfully obtained part of the plane that has been our target. The tail portion has been confirmed found,’ he said.
AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes acknowledged the announcement in a post on his Twitter account.
‘I am led to believe the tail section has been found. If right part of tail section then the black box should be there,’ he tweeted.
‘We need to find all parts soon so we can find all [our] guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority.’
AirNav Indonesia, the country’s navigation operator, says its employees are clean and there is ‘no big money’ involved in relation to airlines altering unapproved flight schedules, The Straits Times reports.
Seven officials, including three from AirNav Indonesia, have now been suspended over suspected links to unapproved schedules, including AirAsia’s fatal flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday, December 28.
‘They are clean,’ AirNav Indonesia’s safety and standard director Wisnu Darjono said of the company’s employees.
‘Look at their dull faces. Not possible for them to have lots of money.’
