Passengers on Flight 8501 knew they were going
to their doom: Search pilots reveal victims had
time to put on life-jackets before jet crashe
and two were found holding hands in the Java
Sea
*Seventh body pulled from water at crash site
was wearing a life-jacket
*Pilot assisting search added that three victims
were found holding hands
*Details indicate passengers knew plane was
about to crash and suggests some may have
been alive after impact
*Two coffins arrived at Juanda Airport for
identification earlier today
*Family members have been stationed there
since the plane vanished from radars just 42
minutes after departing the airport on Sunday
*Next of kin have been asked for DNA samples to
help identify the victims
*More victims are expected to arrive at the
airport as the day progresses
*But search for further bodies is being hampered
by stormy weather
*Strong winds and currents moved floating
wreckage 30 miles overnight
Passengers on board doomed AirAsia flight 8501
would have have been aware that the plane was
going crash, it has emerged, after search pilots
revealed victims had time to put on life jackets.
Representatives from Basarnas, Indonesia's
search and rescue agency, said a seventh body
recovered from the Java Sea this morning was
wearing a life jacket, while a pilot assisting the
operation claimed three of the victims were found
floating in the water still holding hands.
Some of the recovered bodies were fully clothed,
which could indicate the Airbus A320-200 was
intact when it hit the water - supporting the
theory that the plane did not explode or break up
in mid-air and may instead have suffered an
aerodynamic stall.
The fact that one person put on a life jacket
suggests those on board had time before the
aircraft hit the water, or before it sank.
This would make the search pilot's claim that
three of the victims were found still holding hands
more feasible, as it suggests not all passengers
died on impact, although it raises questions over
why the AirAsia captain did not raise a distress
signal before the crash.
Ships and planes have been scouring the Java
Sea for flight QZ8501 since Sunday, when the
AirAsia plane lost contact during bad weather 42
minutes into its flight from the Indonesian city of
Surabaya to Singapore.
Despite suggestions passengers may have been
alive during the plane's final few moments in the
air, the the pilots did not issue a distress signal in
the time between asking permission to fly higher
to avoid bad weather and six minutes later when
air traffic control lost contact with the plane.
'This morning, we recovered a total of four bodies
and one of them was wearing a life jacket,' said
Tatang Zaenudin, an official with the search and
rescue agency.
He declined to speculate on what the find might
mean.
Earlier Lieutenant Airman Tri Wobowo, who co-
piloted the C130 Hercules aircraft that first saw
debris of the plane on Tuesday, told Indonesian
newspaper Kompas: 'There are seven to eight
people. Three [of them] again hold hands.'
A pilot who works for a Gulf carrier said the life
jacket indicated the cause of the crash was not
'catastrophic failure'. Instead, the plane could
have stalled and then come down, possibly
because its instruments iced up and gave the
pilots inaccurate readings.
'There was time. It means the thing didn't just
fall out of the sky,' said the pilot, who declined to
be identified.
He said it could take a minute for a plane to come
down from 30,000 feet and the pilots could have
experienced 'tunnel vision ... too overloaded' to
send a distress call.
'The first train of thought when you get into a
situation like that is to fly the aircraft.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/
article-2891639/AirAsia-crash-victims-floating-
alongside-tragic-passengers-luggage-wreckage-
doomed-jet-discovered-Java-Sea.html
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