Crashed AirAsia's tail hoisted from sea in search of boxes

[Lite Beer]

Crashed AirAsia's tail hoisted from sea in search of boxes

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — Investigators searching for black boxes in the crashed AirAsia plane lifted the tail portion out of the Java Sea on Saturday, two weeks ago after it went down, killing all 162 people on board.

It was not immediately clear if the cockpit voice and flight data recorders were still inside the tail or have been detached when the Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea Dec. 28. Their recovery is essential to finding out why it crashed.

The tail was hoisted from a depth of about 30 meters (100 feet) using inflatable bags that were attached to the rear of the aircraft and a crane to lift it onto a rescue ship.

Intermittent underwater ping-like sounds were picked up Friday about a kilometer (half mile) from where the tail was located, but it was unclear if they were coming from the recorders located in the back of the aircraft. It was possible the signals were coming from another source.

No metal was detected at the ping location, and Nurcahyo Utomo, a National Commission for Transportation Safety investigator, said the sounds could not be confirmed.

The discovery of the tail on the ocean floor earlier this week was a major breakthrough in the slow-moving search that has been hampered by seasonal rains, choppy seas and blinding silt from river runoff. Officials were hopeful the black boxes were still inside.

The last contact the pilots had with air traffic control, about halfway into their two-hour journey, indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic above them. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar.

Four additional bodies were recovered Friday — two of them still strapped in their seats on the ocean floor — bringing the total to 48. Officials hope many of the remaining corpses will be found inside the fuselage, which has not yet been located by divers. Several large objects have been spotted in the area by sonar.

Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan cracked down on five airlines Friday, temporarily suspending 61 flights, because they were flying routes on days without permits. Earlier, all AirAsia flights from Surabaya to Singapore, the path Flight 8501 was on when it went down Dec. 28, were suspended after it was discovered that the low-cost carrier was not authorized to fly on Sundays.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan also sanctioned nine more officials for allowing the plane to fly without permits, bringing the total to 16.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-01-10

[Basil B]

Glad there are pictures of them recovering the tail section on other internet sites or I would not believe it...

just so much contradicting statements put out by various Indonesian agencies and officials who like the sound of their own voices and know nothing.

Seems the Transport Minister is more interested in kicking asses over an administrative issue that has nothing to do with flight safety.

[Basil B]

Looking at the picture of the tail section, (see reuters link for photos) there is not much left of it, just the vertical stabilizer and rudder, plus some of cabin skin forward of the rear passenger doors which has split open.

Looks like the horizontal stabilizers, elevators, cabin floor and APU have all broken away from the tail section,

"We can confirm the black box is not in the tail," Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters in the town of Pangkalan Bun, the base for the search effort on Borneo.

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/10/us-indonesia-airplane-idUSKBN0KG09L20150110 )

[Jay Sata]

The fact that most of the wreckage is in a fairly tight area suggests a break up on entering the sea.

Had it been an in flight break up the wreckage would have been spread over a wider area.

The major concern is why did the flight recorders not activate on entering the sea?

[bangon04]

Looking at the picture of the tail section, (see reuters link for photos) there is not much left of it, just the vertical stabilizer and rudder, plus some of cabin skin forward of the rear passenger doors which has split open.

Looks like the horizontal stabilizers, elevators, cabin floor and APU have all broken away from the tail section,

"We can confirm the black box is not in the tail," Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters in the town of Pangkalan Bun, the base for the search effort on Borneo.

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/10/us-indonesia-airplane-idUSKBN0KG09L20150110 )

Do the Indonesian government spokesmen actually understand the different between the "Tail Section" and a tailfin??

[Basil B]

Looking at the picture of the tail section, (see reuters link for photos) there is not much left of it, just the vertical stabilizer and rudder, plus some of cabin skin forward of the rear passenger doors which has split open.

Looks like the horizontal stabilizers, elevators, cabin floor and APU have all broken away from the tail section,

"We can confirm the black box is not in the tail," Supriyadi, operations coordinator for the National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters in the town of Pangkalan Bun, the base for the search effort on Borneo.

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/10/us-indonesia-airplane-idUSKBN0KG09L20150110 )

Do the Indonesian government spokesmen actually understand the different between the "Tail Section" and a tailfin??

It is a substantial part of the tail section not just the Vertical stabilizer...

[Basil B]

The fact that most of the wreckage is in a fairly tight area suggests a break up on entering the sea.

Had it been an in flight break up the wreckage would have been spread over a wider area.

The major concern is why did the flight recorders not activate on entering the sea?

I have not seen any map showing where wreckage was found, and floating wreckage is a totally different ball game.

PanAm 103 (Lockabie) was blown up at 31,000' (FL310), wreakage was spread over 2,000Km²

To me looking at remains of the tail section I would say it did not break off mid air but on impact.

"The major concern is why did the flight recorders not activate on entering the sea?" ELT or Pingers???

My guess is the Black boxes and pingers are deep in mud, also just too many boats and ships making far too much background noise for them to detect the pingers.

Also I do not think the acoustics will carry that well in shallow water, also towing the search hydrophones in waters that are not very deep will mean they have to be near the surface and towed on a shorter line.

As for the ELT, seems it did not detach or it sustained damage that made it inoperable.

Also it is important to recover the engines at they will be able to tell if they were running at the time of impact.

[pattayasnowman]

Looking at the picture of the tail section, (see reuters link for photos) there is not much left of it, just the vertical stabilizer and rudder, plus some of cabin skin forward of the rear passenger doors which has split open.

Looks like the horizontal stabilizers, elevators, cabin floor and APU have all broken away from the tail section,

If the vertical stabilizer and rudder broke away during the flight , the plane normally would be un controllable and plunge into the Ocean.

Several Airbus 300 series jets have had tail fin and rudder problems in the past

Where this section was found in relation to the body of the wreakage is im portant iin determining this.