No sign so far of terrorism, pilot suicide: QZ8501 crash investigators

Crew members of Crest Onyx ship prepare to unload parts of AirAsia Flight 8501 from a ship at Kumai port in Pangkalan Bun on Jan 11, 2015. (Photo source: AP/Achmad Ibrahim)

JAKARTA: Indonesian investigators probing the crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 said on Monday (Jan 19) that analysis of the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder so far shows no sign that terrorism or pilot suicide played a role in the disaster.

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens in bad weather on December 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia's second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. The crash killed all 162 people aboard.

Investigators said they had listened to the whole of the recording but transcribed only about half. "So far, there's no sign of terrorist activity," said Mardjono Siswosuwarno, the lead investigator in the probe.

"We didn't hear any voice of other persons other than the pilots," said Nurcahyo Utomo, another investigator from Indonesia's Transportation Safety Committee. "We didn't hear any sounds of gunfire or explosions. For the time being, based on that, we can eliminate the possibility of terrorism." He also said nothing heard on the audio recording so far suggested pilot suicide played a role in the crash.

The voice recorder was recovered along with a flight-data recorder from the crash site in the Java Sea last week.

BAD WEATHER HAMPERS SEARCH

No additional bodies of victims were found during Monday's search operation.

In a statement, AirAsia said divers have retrieved more debris - passenger seats, windows and interior parts of the aircraft, adding that the operation was hampered by high waves and adverse weather.

The bodies of two victims recovered on Sunday have been sent to Surabaya for identification, AirAsia added. A total of 53 bodies have been recovered so far, and 45 have been identified.

A preliminary report is due to be released on January 28, 30 days after the incident, the chief of the National Transportation Safety Committee said.

"The preliminary report is just one month after the accident happened," said Tatang Kurniadi. "Yes, 28 (of December) the accident happened and then next 28, I will finish it."