Indonesia searchers find 'debris'

Search teams say they have spotted unidentified debris in the Java Coast amid hunt for missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

 

Indonesian officials have said that three pieces of unidentified debris sighted off Kalimantan coast in the Java Sea is likely to be from missing AirAsia jet.

"The debris is red and white," Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting director-general of air transportation at the Transportation Ministry, told reporters. "We are checking if it's debris from the aircraft. It's probably from the body of the aircraft."
Flight QZ8501 went missing after air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft about 45 minutes after it left Juanda international airport at Surabaya in East Java at 5.20am on Sunday (22:20 GMT Saturday).
Shortly before disappearing, AirAsia said the pilot of the plane had asked permission from air traffic control to change course and climb above bad weather in an area noted for severe thunderstorms.
The search for the plane carrying 162 people, is now in its third day.
The airline said most of the passengers on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.
The aircraft was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost airline market.
AirAsia said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on November 16. The company has never suffered a fatal accident.

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