A Singaporean navy ship has located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia plane in the Java Sea, Singapore’s defence minister said Wednesday.
Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said on his Facebook page that images taken by a remote controlled vehicle from the ship showed parts of the plane’s wing and words on the fuselage.
The photos show the AirAsia slogan on the wreckage: “Now everyone can fly.”
He said Indonesian search officials have been notified so they can begin recovery operations.
The plane disappeared from radar on Dec. 28 less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. It was carrying 162 people, but only 48 bodies have been recovered so far.
Many of the victims are believed to be entombed in the main section of the aircraft’s cabin. Nearly all passengers and crew were Indonesian.
The plane’s tail was recovered over the weekend, and its two “black boxes” — the flight data recorder and cockpit flight recorder — were retrieved on Monday and Tuesday.
In their last contact with air-traffic controllers, the pilots of the AirAsia jet asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,750 metres) to 38,000 feet (11,580 metres) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane disappeared. No distress signal was received.
The voice recorder captures all conversations between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, as well as any noises in the cockpit, including possible alarms or explosions.
The flight data recorder saves information on the position and condition of almost every major part in the plane, including altitude, airspeed, direction, engine thrust, rate of ascent or descent and what up-or-down angle the plane is pointed.
