AirAsia search turns up big parts in Java Sea
(CNN) -- Small debris, 30 bodies, an oil slick, and then on Saturday, two big pieces of metal debris. Rescuers searching for doomed AirAsia Flight QZ8501 seem to be finding it piece by piece. Photos of the new debris are likely to follow soon, as Indonesia's rescue agency is sending down a remote-operated vehicle with a camera, Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo said on Saturday. The first object measures 9.2 x 4.6 x 0.5 meters (30 x 15 x 1.6 feet), and the second measures 7.2 x 0.5 meters (24 x 1.6 feet).
Late Friday, searchers found an oil slick, and shortly after, an Indonesian ship using a metal detection system came across the metal parts.
The USS Sampson, deployed by the U.S. Navy to help, recover some bodies. A limited number of them will be autopsied to determine the cause of death to aid the investigation, an Indonesian official said on Saturday. "According local wisdom and culture, not all families accept autopsies. For the sake of the investigation we agree, and it is accepted by INTERPOL, to perform autopsies on the pilot, co-pilot and some randomly selected passengers," said East Java Police Chief Anas Yusuf. Four of the plane's victims have been identified. The first, Hayati Lutfiah Hamid, was laid to rest on Thursday. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes said he was traveling to Surabaya, Indonesia, to bring home the body of flight attendant Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi. "I cannot describe how I feel. There are no words," he said on Twitter. Family members of the 132 still missing waited in Surabaya for news. Finding the fuselage and black box of the Airbus A320-200 have priority for the 59 diving teams searching underneath the waves. Russia has sent 22 of them along with a search plane and a cargo jet. They are concentrating on a 1,575 square nautical mile zone that officials believe is the "most probable area" to find the remains of the aircraft. Here's more key information about where things stand on Flight QZ8501: Anguish revisited: Relatives of MH370 victims speak The flight What we know: QZ8501 took off early Sunday from Surabaya, bound for Singapore. Roughly 35 minutes into the flight, the pilot asked air traffic control for permission to turn left and climb to avoid bad weather. Minutes later, the plane disappeared from air traffic control's radar. What we don't know: What happened on board after contact with the plane was lost. No distress call was received. Some experts speculate that the aircraft might have experienced an aerodynamic stall because of a lack of speed or from flying at too sharp an angle to get enough lift. Other theories include a lack of information in the cockpit about the plane's position, or storm damage to the engines. But the questions won't really be answered until the main wreckage and the flight recorders turn up.
