Tiga Jasad Korban Berpegangan Tangan Ketika Ditemukan Mengapung
The Search Pilot`s Claim Three Victims were Found Holding Hands
Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani
Rabu, 31 Desember 2014
Helikopter Basarnas tampak di belakang tiga jasad korban AirAsia di atas kapal perang KRI Bung Tomo di Laut Jawa (kiri) dan keluarga korban meratap setelah lokasi jatuhnya pesawat AirAsia QZ8501 ditemukan di dekat Selat Karimata, Kalimantan Tengah. (Foto2

PENUMPANG di pesawat naas AirAsia QZ8501 seakan mendapat firasat buruk sebelum jatuh ke laut, hal itu terungkap, setelah pilot pesawat pencari mengungkapkan korban tewas mengapung sempat mengenakan jaket pelampung.

Perwakilan dari Badan SAR Nasional (Basarnas) mengatakan tujuh jasad korban yang dievakuasi dari Laut Jawa, Rabu pagi, mengenakan jaket pelampung, sementara pilot pesawat SAR mengakui tiga jasad yang ditemukan mengapung di laut tengah berpegangan tangan.

Beberapa jasad yang ditemukan masih berpakaian lengkap, hal itu mengindikasikan Airbus A320-200 masih utuh sebelum jatuh ke laut - hal itu mendukung teori bahwa pesawat tidak meledak atau hancur di udara dan lebih besar kemungkinannya mengalami kehilangan bobot.

Fakta bahwa satu orang mengenakan jaket pelampung menunjukkan bahwa penumpang di pesawat masih memiliki waktu sebelum pesawat jatuh ke laut, atau sebelum tenggelam, seperti dilansir MailOnline.

Hal ini menguatkan klaim yang dikemukakan pilot SAR bahwa tiga jasad korban ditemukan tengah berpegangan tangan, sekaligus mengindikasikan bahwa tidak semua penumpang tewas seketika, meskipun begitu timbul pertanyaan mengapa kapten pilot AirAsia tidak mengaktifkan sinyal bahaya sebelum jatuh.

Kapal dan pesawat pencari yang dipimpin Basarnas menjelajahi Laut Jawa untuk mencari pesawat QZ9501 sejak Minggu pagi, setelah pesawat AirAsia hilang kontak setelah akibat cuaca buruk setelah 42 menit menempuh penerbangan dari Surabaya ke Singapura.

Meskipun ada kemungkinan penumpang masih hidup setelah pesawat jatuh ke laut, pilot tidak mengaktifkan sinyal bahaya ketika minta izin menaikkan ketinggian pesawat untuk menghindari cuaca buruk dan enam menit kemudian ketika menara pengawas lalu lintas udara kehilangan kontak dengan pesawat.

"Pagi ini, kami mengevakuasi empat mayat dan salah satu dari mereka mengenakan jaket pelampung," kata Tatang Zaenudin, anggota Basarnas.

Dia menolak untuk berspekulasi kenapa hanya satu penumpang yang mengenakan jaket pelampung.

Sebelumnya Letnan penerbang Tri Wobowo, kopilot Hercules C130 Hercules yang pertama kali melihat puing-puing dari pesawat pada Selasa, mengatakan kepada Kompas : "Ada tujuh sampai delapan orang. Tiga [dari mereka] sedang  berpegangan tangan."

Seorang pilot yang bekerja di maskapai Gulf Air mengatakan jaket pelampung menunjukkan penyebab kecelakaan itu bukan karena 'masalah teknis'. Sebaliknya, pesawat kehilangan bobot dan kemudian jatuh, mungkin karena ada es dan membuat pilot kesulitan mengetahui situasi sesungguhnya.

"Sebenarnya ada waktu. Ini berarti pesawat tidak serta merta jatuh saat mengudara," kata pilot, yang menolak untuk diidentifikasi.

Dia mengatakan perlu waktu sekitar satu menit ketika pesawat anjlok dari ketinggian 30 ribu kaki dan pilot  mengalami kondisi 'tunnel vision (kehilangan pandangan) ... akibatnya tidak sempat mengirim panggilan darurat.


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.'

Earlier the first coffins containing victims of doomed flight 8501 arrived at an airport where devastated relatives are waiting to identify their loved ones' bodies.

Two coffins were seen at Juanda Airport near Surabaya in East Java province this morning, where a crisis centre has been providing information to anxious family members since the plane vanished from radars just 42 minutes after departing the airport on Sunday.

The bodies were first transported in body bags from the crash site - 100 miles off the Indonesian coast of Borneo Island - to Iskandar Military Airport near the town of Pangkalan Bun, where they were placed in coffins for the short journey to East Java for formal identification.

Next of kin have been asked for DNA samples to help identify the victims.

Meanwhile Indonesian search officials using sonar radar technology have confirmed that they have located the fuselage of the the Airbus A320-200 upside down on the floor of the Java Sea.

Rescue workers said the plane is resting in 30 metre deep water in the area off Borneo Island where bodies and wreckage was found yesterday.

Since the wreckage from the plane was discovered off the coast of Borneo Island, after three days of searching, there have been a number of different body counts from several official sources, including at one point yesterday that 40 bodies had been recovered from the sea.
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