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Bid to raise AirAsia fuselage begins

Other News Materials 24 January 2015 14:49 (UTC +04:00)
Salvage teams have begun an operation to raise the fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into the Java Sea last month killing all 162 on board
Bid to raise AirAsia fuselage begins

Salvage teams have begun an operation to raise the fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into the Java Sea last month killing all 162 on board, BBC reported.

However, the initial attempt was unsuccessful as ropes around the fuselage snapped.
Another four bodies have been recovered, bringing the total to 69, with more thought to be inside.
Indonesian officials believe the Airbus A320-200 may have climbed too fast to try to avoid a storm and stalled.

The jet was flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore.
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 next week , although the full investigation will take months.

'Tangled yarn'
Divers entered the main section of the fuselage for the first time on Friday.
Poor weather and difficult sea conditions have hampered the salvage operation since the main section of the aircraft was found.
Indonesian rescue agency official SB Supriyadi told Agence France-Presse news agency: "We have begun the operation today (Saturday) to lift the main body and we hope we can float it today."

Naval official Rasyid Kacong told the agency that divers had reached the fuselage at dawn and tied floatation bags to the wreckage.
However, the ropes had snapped and another attempt was being made, he said.
It is believed the plane's cockpit may also be in the same area.

On Friday, Mr Supriyadi described the difficulties of the salvage: "The divers said it was dark inside, the seats where floating about and the wires were like a tangled yarn."
The head of Indonesia's transportation safety committee, Tatang Kurniadi, says a preliminary report on the crash is expected to be filed to the International Civil Aviation Organisation next week.

This week Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told MPs that radar data had shown that the jet had climbed too fast - at a speed of 6,000ft (1,828m) a minute.
He said: "It is not normal to climb like that. It's very rare for commercial planes, which normally climb just 1,000 to 2,000 feet per minute. It can only be done by a fighter jet."
This caused he plane to stall, he said. When planes stall, their engines do not cut out but the wings no longer generate lift because there is not enough air passing over them, BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says.

The jet took off from Surabaya at 05:35 local time (22:35 GMT 27 December).
Shortly before it vanished, nearly halfway into the two-hour flight, its pilot contacted air traffic control to request permission to climb to 38,000ft from 32,000ft to avoid big storm clouds - a common occurrence in the area.
But heavy air traffic in the area meant he was not given permission to do so straight away.
When air traffic control tried to contact the plane again, there was no answer. The plane disappeared from radar screens shortly afterwards. It did not issue a distress signal.

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