Indonesia urges extra forces to search for AirAsia black boxes

Indonesian authorities need additional forces to join the search operation for the black boxes from the crashed Malaysian jet, Itar Tass quoted the chief of the country’s national transportation safety committee was as saying Friday.
“Additional forces are needed to discover the flight data recorders, the so-called “black boxes.” Today is the sixth day of an international search operation, but the results are not very good,” Tatang Kurniadi said on Friday.
Kurniadi said at a meeting with the chief military expert of Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, Eduard Chizhikov.
Earlier on Friday, a Russian Emergencies Ministry’s team of more than 70 rescuers arrived in Indonesia to provide assistance in the search for the crashed plane.
The search effort is hampered by strong waves. The plane is believed to be lying 30-50 meters deep.
Russia’s Beriev Be-200 a multipurpose amphibious aircraft could join the effort. A group of rescuers may be sent to the Kalimantan Island and start working as soon as possible.
“The grouping of Russian rescuers can be reinforced,” Chizhikov said. Another two Il-76 planes with helicopters on board are ready to be sent, he added.
The AirAsia Airbus 320-200 airliner with 155 passengers and 7 crew members on board disappeared from radars on December 28 in the area of the Kalimantan (Borneo) Island some 40 minutes after departure from Indonesia for Singapore. Most of the passengers were from Indonesia.