All 189 on board crashed Indonesian jet feared dead

Yahoo – AFP, Harry PEARL, October 29, 2018

Debris apparently from the crashed jet was pulled out of the water (AFP Photo/Handout)

All 189 passengers and crew aboard a crashed Indonesian Lion Air jet were likely killed in the accident, rescue officials said Monday, as they announced they had found human remains and would continue the grim search through the night.

The Boeing-737 MAX, which went into service just months ago, vanished from radar 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta, plunging into the Java Sea moments after it had asked to return to the Indonesian capital.

Flight JT 610 sped up as it suddenly lost altitude in the minutes before it disappeared, according to flight data tracking websites, with authorities saying witnesses saw the jet plunge into the water.

"The victims that we found, their bodies were no longer intact and it's been hours so it is likely 189 people have died," search and rescue agency operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters.

Some 40 divers are part of about 150 personnel at the scene, authorities said, with wreckage from the jet some 30 to 40 metres deep in the water.

Earlier, video footage apparently filmed at the scene of the crash showed a slick of fuel on the surface of the water and pictures showed what appeared to be an emergency slide and bits of wreckage bearing Lion Air's logo.

Distraught family of passengers gathered at Pangkal Pinang airport, where the

plane had been headed (AFP Photo/HADI SUTRISNO)

The carrier acknowledged that the jet had previously been grounded for unspecified repairs.

"It's really a mystery what could have happened," said Greg Waldron, Asia managing editor of industry publication Flightglobal.

The plane had been en route to Pangkal Pinang city, a jumping off point for beach-and-sun seeking tourists on nearby Belitung island, when it dropped out of contact around 6:30 am (2330 GMT).

Former professional cyclist Andrea Manfredi was a passenger on the flight, the Italian foreign ministry said.

"The memory of a serious guy and in love with his sport, will remain indelible in the minds of all those who, in these years, have had the good fortune to know him," Bardiani-CSF, Manfredi's former team, said in a statement.

'He called this morning'

Footage from Pangkal Pinang's main airport showed families of passengers crying and hugging each other, with some calling out to god.

A fuel slick was spotted at the site where the Lion Air plane is believed to have 

crashed into the sea (AFP Photo/Handout)

"This morning he called asking about our youngest son," said a sobbing Ermayati, referring to her 45-year-old husband Muhammed Syafii, who was on board.

There were 178 adult passengers, one child, two infants, two pilots and six cabin crew aboard the flight, according to Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC).

About 20 finance ministry employees were on the plane including half a dozen colleagues of Sony Setiawan, who missed check in for a flight he took weekly due to bad traffic.

"I know my friends were on that flight," he told AFP.

Setiawan said he was only informed about his lucky escape after he arrived in Pangkal Pinang on another flight.

"My family was in shock and my mother cried, but I told them I was safe, so I just have to be grateful."

Lion Air said the plane had only gone into service in August.

The pilot and co-pilot had more than 11,000 hours of flying time between them and had recent medical checkups and drug testing, it added.

Lion Air chief Edward Sirait said the plane had an unspecified technical issue fixed in Bali before it was flown back to Jakarta.

A search and rescue operation swung into action just after the plane 

disappeared from radar (AFP Photo/Resmi MALAU)

"Engineers in Jakarta received notes and did another repair before it took off" on Monday, Sirait told AFP, calling it "normal procedure".

Poor safety record

US-based Boeing said it was "deeply saddened" by news of the crash.

Boeing reportedly suspended release of the 737 MAX just days out from its first commercial delivery last year due to an engine issue, according to airline safety and product review site airlineratings.com.

It said the engines were a product of a joint venture between US-based General Electric and France's Safran Aircraft Engines.

Earlier this year, Lion Air announced it was buying 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 jets for $6.24 billion.

Indonesia's air travel industry is booming, with the number of domestic passengers growing significantly over the past decade, but it has acquired a reputation for poor regulation and its airlines had previously been banned from US and European airspace.

In August 2015, a commercial passenger aircraft operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana crashed in Papua due to bad weather, killing all 54 people on board.

A year earlier poor maintenance and inadequate pilot response was blamed for an AirAsia plane crash which cost 162 lives.

Lion, a low-cost airline which has engaged in a huge expansion in recent years, has been involved in a number of incidents including a fatal 2004 crash and a collision between two Lion Air planes at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport.

Indonesian air traffic controller hailed as quake hero

Yahoo – AFP, September 30, 2018

A collapsed building in Palu: an air traffic controller is being hailed as a hero
after staying at his post during the quake (AFP Photo/OLA GONDRONK)

Jakarta (AFP) - An Indonesian air traffic controller is being posthumously hailed as a hero for refusing to leave his post despite devastating earthquakes so that he could guide a passenger jet safely off the ground.

Twenty-one-year-old Anthonius Gunawan Agung was on duty in the air traffic control tower at Palu's Mutiara SIS Al-Jufrie airport when a series of earthquakes struck the city in Sulawesi island on Friday.

Officials say he refused to leave his post until he got an Batik Air plane off the ground, while his colleagues who were not handling aircraft departed.

"When the quake happened, he was giving clearance to Batik Air to take off and waited for the plane to be safely airborne before finally leaving the ATC cabin tower," said AirNav Indonesia spokesman Yohanes Harry Sirait.

After Flight 6231 was safely in the air the quakes became ever-stronger, culminating in a 7.5 magnitude jolt and tsunami. At least 832 people are confirmed dead.

Eventually, Agung jumped from the top of the crumbling four-storey tower in a desperate bid to escape, breaking his leg and suffering serious internal injuries.

He was taken to a nearby hospital where he received basic treatment, but died before a helicopter could arrive to transport him to a better-equipped facility.

The company will raise Agung's rank by two levels as a sign of appreciation for his extraordinary dedication, AirNav said in a statement.

Local station Metro TV was among those who hailed Agung's "heroic act".

The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide and many of the world's volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.

Alps crash captain shouted 'open the damn door'

Yahoo – AFP, Kate Millar, 29 March 2015

Police vans block the view as Japanese victims pay their respects on 

March 29, 2015 near a commemorative headstone in Seyne-les-Alpes, the 

closest accessible area to where a Germanwings flight crashed in the

French Alps (AFP Photo/Jean-Pierre Clatot)

Berlin (AFP) - The captain of a passenger jet that investigators believe was deliberately crashed into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, shouted at the co-pilot to "open the damn door" as he desperately tried to get back into the locked cockpit, a German newspaper reported Sunday.

Forensic teams meanwhile announced that they had isolated 78 distinct DNA strands from body parts at the mountain crash site with investigators describing the difficulty of the search as "unprecedented" due to the arduous terrain.

French officials say the plane's black box voice recorder indicates that Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked the captain out of the cockpit of the Germanwings jet and steered Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside.

Machines work to make a path up to 

the crash site on March 29, 2015 in 

Seyne-les-Alpes (AFP Photo/

Jean-Pierre Clatot)

They believe that the more senior pilot, identified by Germany's Bild newspaper as Patrick S., tried desperately to reopen the door during the Barcelona to Duesseldorf flight's eight-minute descent after he left to use the toilet.

The mass-circulation paper's Sunday edition reported that data from the cockpit recorder showed the captain shouted: "For God's sake, open the door", as passengers' screams could be heard in the background.

It said "loud metallic blows" against the cockpit door could then be heard, before another warning alarm went off and then the pilot is heard to scream to a silent Lubitz in the cockpit "open the damn door".

Investigators in the Alps said the violence of the impact and the remote location was severely hampering the search for both body parts and the second "black box".

"We haven't found a single body intact," said Patrick Touron, deputy director of the police's criminal research institute.

"We have slopes of 40 to 60 degrees, falling rocks, and ground that tends to crumble," said Touron. "Some things have to be done by abseiling."

As investigators seek to build up a picture of Lubitz and any possible motives, media reports have emerged that he suffered from eye problems, adding to earlier reports he was severely depressed.

Forensic experts of the French

 gendarmerie disaster victim identification

 unit (UGIVC) work under a tent near

 the site of the crash of a Germanwings

 Airbus A320 in which all 150 people on

 board were killed (AFP Photo/F.Balamo)

German prosecutors believe Lubitz hid an illness from his airline but have not specified the ailment, and said he had apparently been written off sick on the day the Airbus crashed.

'Sight problem'

The Sunday edition of Germany's Bild tabloid and the New York Times, which cited two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz had sought treatment for problems with his sight.

It is thought to be a retinal detachment, the German weekly said.

It also reported that Lubitz's girlfriend with whom he lived in the western city of Duesseldorf was believed to be pregnant.

It gave no sources but said the teacher, who taught maths and English, had told pupils a few weeks ago she was expecting a baby.

Bild's Saturday edition had published an interview with a flight attendant who it said had had a relationship last year with Lubitz and recalled him saying: "One day I'm going to do something that will change the whole system, and everyone will know my name and remember."

Picture released on March 27, 2015 shows

 the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525 

Andreas Lubitz (AFP Photo/Foto 

Team Mueller)

If Lubitz did deliberately crash the plane, it was "because he understood that because of his health problems, his big dream of a job at Lufthansa, of a job as captain and as a long-haul pilot was practically impossible", the woman told Bild.

German prosecutors revealed Friday that searches of Lubitz's homes netted "medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment", including "torn-up and current sick leave notes, among them one covering the day of the crash".

Police have found a number "of medicines for the treatment of psychological illness" during a search at his Duesseldorf home, Welt am Sonntag newspaper said.

It added that the Germanwings co-pilot was suffering from being overstressed and was severely depressive, according to personal notes found.

Search for second black box

French police investigator Jean-Pierre Michel told AFP Saturday that Lubitz's personality was a "serious lead" in the inquiry but not the only one.

The investigation has so far not turned up a "particular element" in the co-pilot's life which could explain his alleged action, he said.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr has said that Lubitz had suspended his pilot training, which began in 2008, "for a certain period", before restarting and qualifying for the Airbus A320 in 2013.

The second-in-command had passed all psychological tests required for training, Spohr told reporters.

Rescuers stand as relatives of Japanese victims pay their respects to crash

 victims, on March 29, 2015 near a commemorative headstone in

Seyne-les-Alpes (AFP Photo/Jean-Pierre Clatot)

Germany is to hold a national memorial ceremony on April 17 for the victims of the disaster, half of whom were German, with Spain accounting for at least 50 and the remainder composed of more than a dozen other nationalities.

France's Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA), tasked with investigating civil aviation accidents, meanwhile said it was "dismayed" by the revelations in the German press which it said smacked of "voyeurism".

Related Article:

Germanwings crash co-pilot hid illness from airline

A year after MH370, Chinese aircraft maker unveils better black box

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-03-08

A COMAC booth at the 15th China International Industry Fair in
Shanghai. (File photo/CFP)

In the event of a test model plane crash, an emergency recorder and tracking system is separated from the tail section of the plane.

The test, which is shown in a video clip, is part of a series of tests run since October by the US subsidiary of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) on a comprehensive emergency information recorder and tracking system.

COMAC America Corporation says its emergency recorder system includes a data storage device and transmitter called Harbinger. It claims it has been applying new methods that transcend traditional designs of black box recorders used in commercial aircraft.

The yearlong searching effort for Malaysia Airlines' missing flight MH370 has turned up with no sign of the plane, but it has fueled the company's resolve to come up with a more efficient system.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200, disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board. So far no trace has been found despite a massive surface and underwater hunt, in what has become one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history.

The search continues to be jointly carried out by Australia, Malaysia and China over vast swaths of the Indian Ocean some 1,600 kilometers off Australia's west coast, with four ships using sophisticated sonar systems to scour a huge underwater area.

The protracted search for the missing plane's black boxes, or the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, are presenting new demands for aviation security and rescue. Major aircraft makers of the world continue to contribute to black box technologies.

A traditional black box emits distress signals for 30 days after sinking with the plane. It stores 30-minutes of cockpit voice conversation and two hours of flight data before the crash.

However, when the plane crashes and goes down at sea, the sonar signal emitted from the black box only transmits several kilometers, therefore requiring a rather definitive search area, which is often difficult in sea crashes.

If the black box becomes covered in seabed sludge (or heavy snow, in the case of a mountainside crash), distress signals are weak and hard to detect, making it difficult to locate the crash site in a timely manner for rescue.

COMAC America believes that the Harbinger emergency system is a useful supplement to existing black box designs that sink with the plane after a crash.

Engineers of the company say, the Harbinger emergency system is able to capture images of the last few minutes of the plane before it crashes. With the system, the last few minutes of the plane's position, black box data, and video footage is uploaded through cloud technology to a satellite.

The system can also save a copy of the data and is equipped with a parachute and inflation system to enable it to stay afloat at sea. The inflation system can also protect hardware when the Harbinger lands on hard surfaces. It will also transmit distress signals to help rescue teams locate its position.

Based on repeated tests of the system, the video footage of the last few minutes of a plane crash, for instance, offers invaluable insight into the data captured in a traditional black box. The position tracking system and cloud data transmission function also increases the probability of rapid location of the crash site and the survivability of the captured flight data.

"Being able to find the true cause of an air disaster is a crucial step towards improving aircraft designs for safer air travel tomorrow," said Wei Ye, president of COMAC America Corporation told Xinhua. "The Harbinger emergency system will bring revolutionary changes to air rescue and aviation security."

The company has filed a patent application of the Harbinger emergency system with the US Patent and Trademark Office, said Ye, adding that "we believe new models of commercial aircraft in the future will benefit from using this system."

MH370 steered off course toward Antarctica: expert

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-02-25

A family member of missing passengers from the MH370 adjusts lit candles
in a vigil for the vanished airliner, April 8, 2014. (File photo/ CNS)

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared on March 6 last year on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, may have been deliberately flown off course towards Antarctica, according to an aviation disaster expert cited in the UK's Daily Mail.

Satellite data suggests the plane made three turns to the south towards Antarctica after its last radio contact and experts believe that it had stayed in the air for hours after losing contact with air traffic control, said the report.

In a National Geographic production to be aired in March to mark the first anniversary of the disappearance of the airliner, aviation disaster expert Malcolm Brenner says the turns "strongly suggest" that someone had deliberately directed the Boeing 777-200 with 239 passengers on board off course. Brenner has led a team to investigate the disappearance of the airliner and is seen as one of the world's leading aviation disaster experts.

MH370 was first believed to have crashed in the Gulf of Thailand. Later, the search turned to the southern Indian Ocean but no physical evidence of the plane's fate has been found.

"This accident has caught the attention of the world in a way I have not seen in a forty-year career in aviation," Brenner said.

Malaysia's civil aviation authority said in January that one-third of the underwater search for MH370 is complete and the rest will be completed by May. Malaysia believes that MH370 is located within the region scheduled to be searched, but they will look for alternative solutions based on the data they have if nothing is found by then.

The Malaysian government will announce an investigation report on the missing flight on March 7, a day before the first anniversary of its disappearance.

Related Articles:

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts

Archangel Michael: Spring Means the Time of Rebirth and Awakening – The Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow, March 22, 2014

....SB: That’s very good, Lord. Thank you. I’m going to move quickly to Flight 370, and then hopefully a short talk on global citizenry.

Ashira said that Flight 370 had exploded, but he didn’t say what the cause of the explosion was. Others have said that a secret naval weapon was used to cause it to disintegrate. And recently a prominent channel said the plane was suffering from hydraulic failure, was in an uncontrolled state, at risk of imminent destruction; whisked out of the air in mid-flight, was taken aboard an enormous spaceship from Sirius claimed to be part of the Federation fleet under the Ashtar Command whose full report is available from a certain website.

Now, Ashira said they took a few people up who still wanted to remain in form, but the rest — they passed on. What is the truth, Lord?

AAM: This is not an action — let us put it this way — this is not an action that your star brothers and sisters have been deeply involved in. This is an action of what we would refer to, or Gabrielle would refer to, as of violence, of sabotage, of subterfuge. And it has continued.

So there are lies upon lies upon lies. And what is occurring … this is a terrible situation. And it is painful to so many. But what it is also doing for humanity, it is bringing up what we would call shared compassion and grief. Because if you were to look at the grief and the confusion and the compassion component of what is being felt and emanating from the hearts of the collective, individuals all over the planet, it is out of alignment with the situation even including those who have been on the plane and who have suffered and the families that are left suffering the loss of their loved ones.

So it has amplified and shown the global community, in a time when there has been much strife and conflict on the ground, the other side of the scale, where you are seeing the global community coming together in compassion and sending healing for many. It is also bringing together the global community in saying, “We require, we demand truth.” Because there have been such significant untruths, every step of the way. And now what is occurring, among what you think are responsible agencies of many countries, is that they are looking for scapegoats. They are looking for situations to hang this on.

The truth will come out, but the function of this act of violence has been hijacked in many ways not by your star brothers and sisters but by the Company of Heaven to teach several very important, critical, timely lessons. The ship has not been taken on board a mothership elsewhere. That is false hope.

SB: Where is the ship, Lord? Is it blown to smithereens, or is it at the bottom of the ocean?

AAM: For all intents and purposes, it is not intact. We cannot give you the totality because that would be breaking our agreement.

SB: And then of course you couldn’t tell us what nation did it, either?

AAM: It is not so much a nation as individuals acting independently.

SB: All right. I’m not sure whether I should go further in trying to get more details, or…. whether….

AAM: Please do not.....

Message from Matthew and Ashtar via Suzy Ward: March 20, 2014 – Missing Malaysian Airlines Plane

Ashira on Malaysian Flight 370 and the Ukraine - The Golden Age of Gaia, Steve Beckow, March 11, 2014

On Heavenly Blessings today, Suzi Maresca asked Ashira, Commander of the Neptune, what caused the loss of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and Ashira replied:

 “It was not interdimensional slippage and they were not taken by us. So let us be very clear. We would not do that. Not at this point because from our perspective that would be seen as an act of war or an act of terrorism. We would not break that many hearts.

“So what happened was that there was an explosion and the ship went down. Could we have saved it? There are certain things that we are not permitted to interfere with. But let us also …. now this is what we can say … on that ship [everyone?] was taken care of. …

“There were many upon that ship who as a collective had agreed to leave together … and this is something that often happens … there is a group soul, whether you believe it or not. Now those who did not want to pass from their form were beamed up.”

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

Jakarta Floods Force PLN to Shut Down Over 400 Electrical Relays

Jakarta Globe, Rangga Prakoso, Feb 09, 2015

Residents try to cross a street in Rawamangun, East Jakarta, on Monday.
 (Antara Photo/Rosa Panggabean)

Jakarta. State utility firm Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has shut down more than 400 electrical relays in the Greater Jakarta area on Monday due to floods that inundated parts of the capital.

PLN spokesman Mambang Hertadi said that as of 3:35 p.m the company had shut down 428 electrical relays in flood-hit areas to prevent people from being electrocuted.

“The area affected by the floods is getting bigger so we have to cut off the electricity supply to more consumers’ houses,” Mambang said.

Mambang added that people whose house was inundated should immediately turn off their electricity and unplug all electronic devices.

He urged people to follow this advice and stay alert to prevent accidents.

Last month, two people died of electrocution when their house in West Pademangan, North Jakarta, was inundated by water and they forgot to unplug their refrigerator.

Jakartans woke up to a partially flooded city on Monday after a night of heavy rains. Many roads were impassable, leading to massive traffic problems in all part of the city.

A policeman helps a motorist on flooded street outside the Presidential Palace

 after heavy seasonal rains flooded parts of Jakarta Feb. 9, 2015. (Reuters Photo/

Darren Whiteside)

Related Articles:

Basuki Blames Electrical Outage for Central Jakarta Flooding

Facing Jakarta’s Floods

Presidential Palace Hit by Flood

Aircraft set for minute-by-minute tracking

Yahoo – AFP, Marc Brabant, 31 Jan 2015

All commercial flights worldwide could soon send out an automated signal every
 minute in times of distress to help rescuers find downed aircraft more easily
(AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

Montreal (AFP) - All commercial flights worldwide could soon send out an automated signal every minute in times of distress to help rescuers find downed aircraft more easily.

The new measures are in response to last year's disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in what remains one of history's great aviation mysteries.

The aircraft, with 239 people on board, has never been found, nearly a year on.

The new tracking rules, prepared by an industry working group, would be phased in by the end of this year, said the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations agency.

The initiative will now be presented to delegates from all 191 ICAO member states at a meeting in Montreal from Monday to Thursday, and "a final proposal" will be submitted to the ICAO Council within six months for ratification.

The measure has unanimous support among ICAO member states, a source said Friday, meaning it is virtually assured to be brought in.

Currently, radar can track a plane, however coverage fades when aircraft are out at sea or the plane is flying below a certain altitude.

Under the new rules, airlines will be required to track their aircraft using a system that gives their location at 15-minute intervals.

If an "abnormal event" is detected, including a change in direction or deviation from a flight path, the signal rate hastens to every minute.

Airlines would be responsible for sharing the data with authorities in cases of emergencies.

"It's the start of tracking (flights) every minute in emergency situations that is the most effective in the short term," the source said.

Following a distress signal, search and rescue teams would be able to zero in on an aircraft within six nautical miles (11 kilometers) of its last known position.

The ICAO will also ask airlines to equip their aircraft with ejectable black boxes. These would float and be more easily retrievable in case of a crash over water.

They will be mandatory on new aircraft built after 2021, the source told AFP.

The ejectable black boxes would be in addition to existing commercial flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders that continually record flight information.

Military Pulls Out of AirAsia 8501 Recovery Effort

Jakarta Globe, Jan 27, 2015

The Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Tuesday that it plans to end its participation
 in AirAsia Flight QZ8501 recovery operations, a day after its attempt to raise the
 downed plane’s fuselage from the bottom of the Java Sea failed. The civilian search
 and rescue agency (Basarnas) said it may continue its efforts, which will be limited
without the Navy’s help. (AFP Photo/Adek Berry)

Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan. Indonesia’s military on Tuesday halted search and recovery efforts for an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed last month killing all 162 people on board, navy officials said.

“The operation has been ongoing for 30 days so the joint team has been pulled out,” Rear Adm. Widodo, head of the navy’s western fleet, told reporters. “We apologize to the families of the victims. We tried our best to look for the missing victims.”

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28, less than half way into a two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors. Seventy bodies have been recovered.

The flight recorders have also been retrieved and are being analyzed. Days of rough weather and poor visibility have hampered navy divers’ efforts to find more bodies and recover the fuselage of the plane. Widodo said no more victims had been found by divers involved in the search for the past two days.

Since Saturday, salvage teams have been using giant inflatable bags to try to raise the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which is lying in the sea at a depth of around 30 meters. At one point, they managed to lift the main body to the surface for two minutes before a sling holding it snapped.

Video showing images of the fuselage dragging against the military recovery boat’s deck, then ripping and tumbling back to the bottom of the sea, raised concern among observers that vital clues about what caused the crash may have been destroyed in the failed attempt to raise the fuselage.

The civilian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said on Tuesday it may press on with the search for bodies. But its efforts will be hampered by the loss of the military’s large vessels and heavy recovery equipment.

“Perhaps we will do regular operations with help from fishermen and communities near the coast to find other victims,” said Tatang Zaenuddin, Basarnas’s deputy of operations. The agency will hold a news conference on Wednesday.

Imam Sampurno, who lost four family members on Flight QZ8501, none of whom has been found, said he was resigned to their fate. “We can only hope they will continue to search, but if it’s stopped there is nothing I can do about it. I am resigned to it,” he said.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) will submit its initial findings on the crash this week to the International Civil Aviation Organization. The preliminary report, which the ICAO requires within 30 days of an accident, will include “information on the plane, the number of passengers and other information like that,” NTSC investigator Suryanto said.

But it  will not include analysis from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, both of which were recovered by divers from the bottom of the Java Sea.

Data from radar and the aircraft’s two “black box” flight recorders will provide investigators with a clearer picture of what occurred during the final minutes of the flight. But investigators say they have yet to start their analysis, as they have been compiling other data for the inquiry.

Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told a parliamentary hearing last week that, based on radar data, the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled. Investigators have found no evidence of foul play.

The NTSC will hold an annual media conference this week on its work over the past year but it is not expected to discuss details of its investigation of the AirAsia crash, NTSC head Tatang Kurniadi said.  The final report on the crash, which will be made public, must be filed within a year.

Former Garuda Indonesia captain Shadrach M. Nababan, said that based on the crashed plane’s logbook data, the Airbus A320-200 serving AirAsia flight QZ8501 had experienced problems with its auto rudder trim limiter as many as nine times in 2014, as reported by Tempo.co. Three days before crashing on December 25, 2014, flight QZ8501 was forced to “return to apron” twice, according to Shadrach, although it is not clear if the reason for the plane’s forced return was related to rudder trim trouble.

Reuters & AFP

AirAsia tipped to surmount first major crisis

Yahoo – AFP, Satish Cheney, 11 Jan 2015

AirAsia passenger planes are seen parked on the tarmac of the low-cost carrier

 Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2), in Sepang, on January 10, 2015

(AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Until Flight QZ8501 went down everything had gone right during a spectacular 13-year run of success for AirAsia, which unlocked a booming market of budget travellers in the region.

But as long as no serious safety lapses emerge, analysts say the robust and media-savvy business built up by the Malaysia-based group should help overcome its first major reversal.

Passengers stand near an AirAsia

information board at the low-cost carrier

Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2

(KLIA2) in Sepang, on January 10,

2015 (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Flight QZ8501 operated by Indonesia AirAsia -- the group's Jakarta-based affiliate -- crashed in the Java Sea on December 28 en route to Singapore from Surabaya with 162 aboard. All are believed dead.

From the start, AirAsia's colourful boss Tony Fernandes publicly took responsibility, visited victims' families, and vowed to find out what happened.

Such actions are critical in restoring trust, experts say, and stand in stark contrast to Malaysia Airlines' fumbling, tight-lipped handling of the still-unsolved disappearance of Flight MH370 last March with 239 aboard.

"This is an excellent case of a crisis being handled well, to show your customers that things are being taken care of in a hands-on manner, and that the executives are not just sipping their coffees in a cosy office," said Daniel Tsang, an aerospace analyst with Aspire Aviation.

"While some passengers may avoid taking (AirAsia) flights in the short-term, AirAsia's low-cost proposition will keep drawing in first-time fliers to the airline."

If investigators uncover safety negligence on the airline's part, however, it could deeply undermine confidence.

The cause is not yet known, but the plane's Indonesian pilot had requested a course change from air traffic controllers shortly before the crash to avoid a storm.

Indonesian officials in turn have raised questions about Indonesia AirAsia, saying it did not have a license to fly the route that day, but Fernandes has rejected the claim.

AirAsia advertisements are seen at the

 low-cost carrier Kuala Lumpur International 

Airport 2 (KLIA2) in Sepang, on January

10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

'Everyone can fly'

Yet even if any safety lapses are pinned on the carrier, aviation analysts said AirAsia could mitigate the impact with an aggressive and public campaign to address shortcomings.

AirAsia would need to "be upfront about safety lapses, own up to error, lay out ways to avoid future (accidents), and move on", said Terence Fan, an aviation expert at Singapore Management University.

"Unless serious lapses at the airline were found, an airline typically bounces back in a few months in terms of traffic."

Taking to Twitter, Fernandes last week vowed all the facts will come out. "We never hide," he declared.

Shukor Yusof, founder of Malaysia-based aviation research firm Endau Analytics, said he would be surprised if a systemic AirAsia safety problem was found.

"AirAsia does well in cost-cutting but not to the extent of foregoing safety," he said.

Knowing the plane's fate also means AirAsia can bring closure to families, so muting long-term criticism. In contrast, the failure to find MH370 has left many victims' kin alleging a cover-up by Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia's government.

AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes,

 pictured ahead of a press conference at

 Juanda International Airport in Surabaya,

 on December 29, 2014 (AFP Photo/

Manan Vatsyayana)

A former record industry executive, Fernandes, 50, took over heavily indebted AirAsia in December 2001. He turned it into a roaring success with its rock-bottom fares and a playful image embodied by its baseball cap-wearing boss, who has been called Asia's Richard Branson.

With its corporate motto declaring "Now everyone can fly", it has won over tens of millions of travellers in a burgeoning Asian middle class previously confined to more expensive regional flag carriers, snagging several awards as the world's best budget carrier.

"Certainly AirAsia will recover as it is a very good airline and this tragedy will not impact its growth," said AirlineRatings.com editor Geoffrey Thomas.

That said, AirAsia is struggling to maintain growth rates as it matures, as rivals step up competition. In the first blow to its business, Indonesian authorities have halted AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore flights.

But analysts note that AirAsia has continually proven itself the region's most nimble performer, and that other airlines have bounced back from tragedy to emerge stronger. These include flag carriers Garuda Indonesia and Korean Airlines.