4 large pieces of Air Asia plane debris found on the seabed

Indonesian officials have confirmed they have found four large pieces of debris from AirAsia flight QZ8501 on the seabed.

According to Mr. Henry Bambang Soelistyo, head of the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency: The largest piece of debris is 18m long and 5.4m wide.

Search efforts were hampered by high waves on Tuesday, but conditions are expected to improve significantly on Sunday, with Indonesian officials hoping to find more passengers and crew still trapped in their seats.

As of January 3, rescuers had recovered 30 bodies from the sea where the accident occurred, of which 18 bodies had been brought to Surabaya for identification and autopsy.

Indonesian Navy recovers bodies of victims and brings them onto ship (Photo: Reuters)

As the plane's black boxes - containing flight data and cockpit voice recorders - have yet to be located, the discovery of aircraft debris, especially large pieces that are almost intact, would be of great help to the investigation.

Meanwhile, a preliminary report from the Indonesian Meteorological Agency said that weather was the biggest factor behind the AirAsia plane crash. The report said that extremely low temperatures caused the plane's engines to freeze, a condition that was difficult to avoid.

One thing that cannot be explained is why the plane entered the Java Sea area even though it was known that the weather at that time was completely unfavorable?

“QZ8501 knew that the weather there was very bad, the pilot could have assessed the situation in advance to reduce the danger,” said a 14-page report from the Indonesian Meteorological and Hydrological Agency.

Hadi Mustofa Djuraid, an official from the Indonesian Ministry of Transport, also raised this question in a press conference on January 3, saying that authorities are also investigating the possibility that the QZ8501 pilot did not request a weather report from the meteorological agency at the time of takeoff.

According to Reuters, Mr. Djoko Murdjatmodjo, acting General Director of Indonesia Air Transport Corporation, from Monday, January 5, the Ministry of Transport will investigate 15 flight routes of flight service providers in Indonesia.

AirAssia representative in Indonesia committed to working with the country's Ministry of Transport.

The Airbus 320 crashed on December 28 en route from Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, to Singapore. At the last minute before losing contact, the pilot asked air traffic control to warn the plane of entering a cloudy area and to fly higher, but the request was denied due to heavy air traffic at the time./.

According to VOV