PANGKALAN BUN, Jan 3 (AFP): Indonesia pledged Saturday to investigate flight violations by AirAsia, as search teams found two big parts of the airline's plane that crashed into the sea last weekend with 162 people on board.
The country's transport ministry said the ill-fated aircraft had been flying on an unauthorised schedule when it crashed, and the airline has now been suspended from flying the route from the city of Surabaya to Singapore.
"It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that's the problem," director general of air transport, Djoko Murjatmodjo, told AFP.
He said AirAsia's permit for the route would be suspended until investigations were completed, while other airlines in the country would also be examined.
"We will carry out an audit or an evaluation on all airlines in Indonesia over whether there are any violations related to route, time and schedule," he said.
Major parts of the Airbus A320-200 were found in the Java Sea off the island of Borneo late Friday night, raising hopes that the remaining bodies and the black box recorders, crucial to determining the cause of the crash, would soon be located.
So far recovery teams have found 30 bodies of those killed when Flight 8501 went down early Sunday during a storm, and search leaders were sending divers to the spot where plane parts had been found to try to recover the remaining bodies.
"With the discovery of an oil spill and two big parts of the aircraft, I can assure you these are the parts of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for," search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters.
"The main focus today is to find and evacuate victims."
A statement from transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata said AirAsia Indonesia had not been permitted to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sundays and had not asked to change its schedule.
Indonesia pledges AirAsia probe as plane parts found
FE Team | Published: January 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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