The Tail of the AirAsia Plane Found in the Java Sea

The Indonesian search and rescue agency announced on Wednesday, January 7, that the tail of the crashed AirAsia plane has been found on the seabed, which is the location where the black box should be. According to Reuters, the rear section of the aircraft was discovered by divers approximately 30 kilometers from where the AirAsia plane disappeared in the Java Sea. So far, 40 bodies and various parts of the plane have been recovered from the water, but the divers' operations to find more parts of the aircraft have been halted for the past 10 days due to bad weather conditions. The AirAsia aircraft was en route from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore with 162 passengers and crew when it disappeared from radar 40 minutes after takeoff and crashed. Initial analyses indicate that the plane passed through a storm cloud during its descent. The Indonesian meteorological agency states that this passage likely caused ice to form in the engines, leading to engine failure. The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation has announced that AirAsia did not have permission to fly the route it was on at the time of the incident. Reports indicate that the pilot requested permission from the control tower before takeoff to fly at a higher altitude to avoid the storm. The flight navigation authority of Indonesia stated that the control tower was unable to grant this route change due to congestion of flights in that area. About 40 minutes after takeoff, the pilot again requested to fly at a higher altitude, but permission was denied again due to other aircraft in the higher altitude routes at that moment. According to AFP, two to three minutes later, when the control tower was able to obtain permission for the AirAsia plane to gain altitude, contact with the aircraft had already been lost.