No evidence so far of terrorism in AirAsia crash

– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: Indonesian investigators said on Monday they had not found any evidence so far that terrorism was involved in the crash of an AirAsia passenger jet last month that killed all 162 people on board.

Andreas Hananto told Reuters that his team of 10 investigators at the National Transportation Safety Committee had found “no threats” in the cockpit voice recordings to indicate foul play during AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

The Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28, less than halfway into a two-hour flight from Indonesia’s second-biggest city of Surabaya to Singapore. There were no survivors.

When asked if there was any evidence from the recording that terrorism was involved, Hananto said: “No. Because if there were terrorism, there would have been a threat of some kind.”

“In that critical situation, the recording indicates that the pilot was busy with the handling of the plane.”

Investigators said they had listened to the whole of the recording but transcribed only about half.

“We didn’t hear any voice of other persons other than the pilots,” said Nurcahyo Utomo, another investigator.

“We didn’t hear any sounds of gunfire or explosions. For the time being, based on that, we can eliminate the possibility of terrorism.”

— Phuket Gazette Editors