Beijing - A team of multinational specialists will arrive at the suspected crash site of an AirAsia jetliner off Borneo Island on Friday, in an effort to help the search operation for the plane's black boxes.
A ship, equipped with two hydrophones, or underwater acoustic detection devices, was due to arrive at the search area for AirAsia flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 that crashed on Sunday en route from Indonesia to Singapore, France's BEA crash investigation agency said late Thursday.
"During the morning of January 2nd, local time, a ship will be taking the investigators to the search area, with detection equipment including hydrophones, in order to try to locate the acoustic beacons from the two flight recorders," BEA said in a statement.
The team includes experts from France, Singapore and Indonesia, said the France-based agency, which assists investigations of all air crashes involving an Airbus aircraft.
A search and rescue vessel tasked to deploy navy divers to the suspected crash site in Java Sea on Thursday had to suspend operations due to bad weather.
"With heavy rains and wind this strong, the waves … may rise up to four meters, exacerbating the visibility of the crews. It is not possible for us to go in such bad weather conditions," Adi Triyanto, captain of the Indonesian ship, said.
He added that the location of the search site for bodies and debris from the AirAsia plane was four hours, or 100 nautical miles, away from Kumai seaport, where the ship was docked.
Debris and bodies from the ill-fated plane were spotted on Tuesday after multinational search efforts began on Sunday.
Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the airliner crash site. A total of 162 people were on board the plane when it crashed.
Those bodies have been sent to the Indonesian city of Surabaya - where the AirAsia plane first took off - by a military cargo plane for further identification before being delivered to families.
Authorities handed over the body of the first found victim, Hayati Luthfiah Hamid, to family members at a Surabaya hospital on Thursday.
Hamid, 49, was buried before sundown in a suburb of the city at an Islamic ceremony attended by relatives and neighbours. – SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua
