Fuselage of Missing AirAsia Plane Found at Bottom of Java Sea

MOSCOW, December 31 (Sputnik) — Indonesian search and rescue officials are believed to have honed in on the remains of the missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 plane, with sonar imaging showing the fuselage, lying upside down, at the bottom of the Java Sea.

A relative of one of the passengers briefed by search and rescue officials told CNN on Wednesday that sonar had "spotted the plane on [the] sea floor."

The plane is said to be in the Karimata Strait, in the Java Sea off the coast of Borneo, lying at a depth of 24-30 meters (78-98 feet). The first debris had earlier been spotted on Tuesday.

Commenting on the grisly discovery, Indonesian President Joko Widodo noted that now is the time to show strength in "this difficult moment," and stated that he has "instructed all the teams to focus on finding the passengers and crew."

AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes told media at a press conference that the discovery "absolutely devastated" him, and that "this is a scar with me for the rest of my life." He added that "there is some closure [now] as opposed to not knowing what's happened and holding out hope."

In addition to searching for passengers and crew, search workers are expected to look for the plane's black boxes, which in addition to the sonar images is expected to help them determine the cause of the accident. Reuters explained that three meter high waves and heavy winds have stalled the search on Wednesday.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency Chief Bambang Soelistyo noted that six bodies have been pulled from the water, one of them appearing to be a uniformed flight attendant, the BBC reported. This negates earlier reports by a navy official that up to 40 bodies were pulled from the water.

AirAsia QZ8501 went missing on Sunday with 162 passengers on board, most of them Indonesian nationals. The Airbus A320-200 flight was traveling from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, vanishing in bad weather.

Reuters explained that one of the main theories is that the plane suffered an aerodynamic stall before plunging into the water. Online discussions by aviation experts reveal that Malaysian radar data shows that the plane may have been climbing at too slow a rate, resulting in the stall. The crew had sought clearance to increase their altitude in order to avoid bad weather shortly before all contact with the plane was lost.

The plane had undergone regular maintenance in November, and had an experienced pilot with 6,100 hours of flight time.

AirAsia is a Malaysian low-cost airliner operating international flights to 100 destinations across 22 countries. This is the third Malaysia-affiliated plane to go missing in 2014. In March a Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur disappeared with 239 passengers and crew on board. In July, MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people onboard.

30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States have been participating in the search for QZ8501. No survivors have been found.