Indonesian military ends recovery efforts for AirAsia plane, victims

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia -- Indonesia's military has halted its recovery efforts for the crashed AirAsia plane, including attempts to locate more bodies and raise the fuselage from the Java Sea, an official said Tuesday.

The Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency, however, said it would continue looking for victims with its own ships and helicopters.

Rear Adm. Widodo, head of the military's search and rescue task force, said the decision to withdraw was made after four days of unsuccessful attempts to raise the fuselage. He said three warships and two military helicopters were being removed.

He apologized to the families of the victims for being unable to retrieve all the bodies.

A total of 70 bodies have been recovered from AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed Dec. 28 with 162 people on board while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, to Singapore.

"Our priority was to find the dead bodies, and we found nothing over the last two days," Widodo said. "We are really sorry to tell the families of the victims that we've done everything we could to find the bodies."

About 80 navy divers struggled with strong currents and poor visibility while trying to lift the fuselage from a depth of 30 meters (100 feet). They were able to enter the fuselage for the first time last Friday and retrieved some bodies.

Citing the National Transportation Safety Committee and AirAsia management, Widodo, who uses one name, said the fuselage is not needed for the investigation. He also said no more bodies were believed to be inside.

Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said the withdrawal of the military did not mean the search for bodies would halt. "Our aim is to locate bodies instead of lifting the fuselage or cockpit," he said.

The cockpit is about 500 meters (yards) from the fuselage on the floor of the Java Sea, and the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot are believed to be inside.

Investigators are analyzing data from the Airbus A320's cockpit voice and flight data recorders with advisers from Airbus.

The voice recorder captures all conversations between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, as well as any noises heard 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, the rate of ascent or descent and what up-or-down angle the plane was pointed.

"There's like 200-plus parameters they record," said aviation expert John Goglia, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member. "It's going to provide us an ocean of material."

In their last contact with air-traffic controllers, the pilots of the AirAsia jet asked to climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was received.