Some AirAsia victims found belted in seats

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ROBIN McDOWELL

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — After nearly a week of searching for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, rescue teams battling monsoon rains had their most successful day yet on Friday, more than tripling the number of bodies pulled from the Java Sea, some still strapped to their seats.

Of the 30 corpses recovered so far, 21 were found on Friday, many of them by a U.S. Navy ship, according to officials.

The Airbus A320 carrying 162 passengers and crew went down Sunday, halfway into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air-traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.

It remains unclear what caused the plane to plunge into the sea. The accident was AirAsia's first since it began operations in 2001, quickly becoming one of the region's most popular low-cost carriers.

FULL story at link.



Crew members of Indonesian Air Force NAS 332 Super Puma helicopter look out of the windows during a search operation for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 over Kumai Bay, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 2, 2015. More ships arrived Friday with sensitive equipment to hunt for the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 and the more than 145 people still missing since it crashed into the sea five days ago. (AP Photo/Bagus Indahono, Pool)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150102/as--indonesia_plane-f936361f76.html

[Kaleva]

1. Kind of an odd headline.

Like it's unusual to find air crash victims still seat belted in their seats.

[cosmicone]

2. The quality of writing has taken a hit

in successive repuke administrations and when purse strings were controlled by repukes -- which means every year since 1980 except 93-94 and 2009-2010.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. It's an interesting data point.

Says something about the impact. (Bodies weren't torn in half at the belt) About the state of the passenger cabin when everything went pear shaped. (Passengers not herded to the back of the plane terrorist-style) etc.

It doesn't mean much, but it eliminates a couple possibilities.

[Yo_Mama]

4. It's relevant to crash investigators

The state and positioning of the bodies is hard data as to the sequence of events. Gruesome data, but very important to an analysis of what went wrong. It gives them data that the flight recorder won't.

[GOLGO 13]

5. Sounds like the plane probably made a water landing

and then sank.

[Yo_Mama]

6. From the little data we have, I doubt it

You wouldn't have such widely dispersed recoveries, I think.

I'm guessing that they got caught in a wind shear/updraft, the plane kind of tore up in mid air, and then the hunks had different trajectories to the water.

A terrible thing - but freak weather can do that:
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/severe/structure/

[RebelOne]

7. I agree with your theory.

I think the plane sort of came apart in mid-air as there was a lot of debris in the water. If it had made a landing intact on the sea and then sunk, there would not have been all those pieces of the plane in the water.

[Sunlei]

10. it is unusual. contrast the difference when russia shot that plane it 'rained' body parts

everything was shredded.

[question everything]

8. All I hope is that they've never knew what hit them. (nt)

[Sunlei]

9. also seems like bodies recovered were in decent shape. so they didn't tear apart or hit the water

that hard.

But looks like no one had life jackets on, so there wasn't time, except some jackets were floating and it wasn't a controlled sea landing.

black box is needed.