Involvement Of RMN Vessels In QZ8501 Search Ends - RMN Chief

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 (Bernama) -- The involvement of Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) vessels in the search mission for the AirAsia Indonesia aircraft, flight QZ8501, officially ended at 6pm Wednesday. RMN chief, Abdul Aziz Jaafar said this followed the discovery of the main evidence, namely the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of the aircraft on Monday and Tuesday in the Java Sea. "Besides, the detection of some big objects under the sea has confirmed the location where the aircraft had crashed. "With this development, the Indonesia National Search and Rescue Body (Basarnas) has since focused its search operation under the sea in a smaller area of 25 nautical square miles. "The search effort in the area is deemed enough by using only Indonesia's assets at this point," he said in a statement issued here Wednesday. He noted that for the duration of 17 days since last Dec 29, RMN had tasked five of its vessels, namely KD Pahang, KD Lekiu, KD Lekir, KD Kasturi and KD Perak, as well as a Fennec helicopter to assist in the search operation for the aircraft. Abdul Aziz said on average, each of the RMN vessels was engaged in the search operation for eight days before leaving the search area for replenishment. He said in carrying out the operation, the RMN ships had covered about 22,000 nautical square miles of the search area involving placing more observers on the deck, aerial surveillance by the Fennec helicopter, radar and sonar observations, besides using the rigid hull inflatable boat. "The RMN vessels managed to find and remove 10 bodies from the sea, besides several pieces of the aircraft wreckage and personal belongings of the crash victims," he added. Abdul Aziz said the RMN vessels had shown a high level of professionalism when working together with the vessels and aircraft from other countries like Indonesia, Singapore, the United States, China and Japan in the operation. The AirAsia Indonesia aircraft, flight QZ8501, went missing from radar screens on Dec 28 while en route to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, with 155 passengers and seven crew members on board. It crashed into the waters of Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. -- BERNAMA