Missing AirAsia plane likely 'at the bottom of the sea', search chief says
"Based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea, the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference.
"That's the preliminary suspicion and it can develop based on the evaluation of the result of our search."
Mr Soelistyo said Indonesia did not have "the tools", such as submersible vehicles, required to retrieve the plane from the seabed, but that it would reach out to other countries for help if necessary.
"Due to the lack of technology that we have, I have coordinated with our foreign minister so we will borrow from other countries which have offered. They are the UK, France and US," he said.
Indonesia has accepted Australia's offer of a RAAF plane to join the search.
A P-3 Orion left Darwin this morning and is heading to the search area.
Indonesian officials resumed the search for the missing plane this morning and remained hopeful of locating the Airbus 320-200 but said it was too early to detect any of the electronic "pings" from the jet's black box recorder.
Air Force spokesman Hadi Thahjanto said two C-130 Hercules planes were focusing their search efforts in areas north-east of Indonesia's Bangka island, which lies roughly halfway between Surabaya and Singapore, in the Java Sea.
Air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft yesterday after its pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather about midway through a journey from Surabaya to Singapore.
The Indonesian transportation minister said the government would review all of AirAsia's Indonesia operations.
International Aviation Security Management Association Asia Pacific vice-president Desmond Ross said even with sudden changes that could put an aircraft in a near-stall condition, pilots usually had time to recover.
"I don't think we should assume immediately it's been caused by severe weather," Mr Ross said.
"We really don't know at this moment what has happened. If it's weather related, there's more to it than just the weather. You also have to ask why he was in that weather.
"We are speculating, no question of that, but the aircraft is equipped with weather radar and that weather radar looks way ahead of the aircraft - 150 nautical miles would be a normal scan pattern - and he can see where the storm cells are.
"The reality is that the pilot should not have been in such severe weather."
An A320 pilot from a South-East Asian airline, who has flown the Surabaya-Singapore route many times, said it was not unusual to request a slight deviation or climb due to poor weather.
"It is not uncommon at this time of the year, and I have done this myself," said the pilot, who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
"It would not have been an unusual request and [air traffic control] will usually grant permission."
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