AirAsia Crash ‘Not Due To Terrorism’, Investigators

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Indonesian investigators has said that the crash of AirAsia QZ8501 was not likely due to terrorism, this they said in their first remarks since analysing the cockpit voice recorder. BBC reports:

Transport safety committee investigator Andreas Hananto told the BBC that there were also indications that the plane encountered bad weather. The plane is thought to have gone down on 28 December when it encountered difficulties from an approaching storm. All 162 people onboard the flight from Surabaya to Singapore perished. Two more bodies were recovered on Monday, bringing the total found so far to 53.

Mr Hananto told BBC Indonesian that investigators had listened to the entire two-hour recording, and found that there was “no threatening voice on board.”

The recording appeared to indicate that the pilot was too busy attempting to regain control of the aircraft to send a distress signal, he said. Some of the parameters retrieved from the flight data recorder seemed to indicate that the plane had encountered bad weather.

More analysis was needed from the rest of the 1,200 parameters to determine the exact weather conditions and the impact the weather had on the plane’s engines, Mr Hananto added. Investigators have only transcribed half of the cockpit voice recording and that would require more analysis as well.