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Indonesia fails to find source of ping signals emitted from presumed AirAsia Blackbox

Xinhua, January 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Indonesian official said on Sunday that divers sent to check ping signals believed from the doomed AirAsia plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorder did not find the device, adding that it has been reported to the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT).

"Our divers have reached the location indicated by the ping signals but they found nothing. The diving was conducted by several groups of divers today," Indonesia National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) Operation Director Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi told Xinhua from Borneo's Pangkalan Bun, base of operation to evacuate debris and bodies from AirAsia crash.

He said that operation to locate the ping signals was hampered by strong undersea stream and low visibility suffered by the divers due to rough weather in the operation location.

Results from search efforts to locate the source that issued ping signals have been reported to the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), the institution tasked to investigate into the crash, according to Supriyadi.

Three Indonesian ships detected the ping signals 2.5 kilometers from location of the tail part, which was lifted up from seabed on Saturday, 30 meters below the sea surface, said Supriyadi previously.

Supriyadi also said that divers failed to have visual contact with a 10 meter long, 4 meter wide, 2 meter high object detected earlier by sonar, adding that bodies of the passengers were believed to remain trapped in that part.

Supriyadi said that in the following days divers will be tasked to seek six large objects, possibly parts of the ill-fated plane detected earlier by multinational search operation.

AirAsia QZ8501 went down on Dec. 28 en route from Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya to Singapore, killing 162 passengers and crews onboard.

Since the debris and bodies was initially spotted on Dec. 30, 48 bodies have been recovered by multinational search operation joined by Indonesia, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, South Korea and China. As of now Indonesia has identified 29 of bodies recovered in the operation. Endi