Indonesia to investigate all local AirAsia flight schedules - The Malaysian Insider

Published: 3 January 2015

PT Indonesia AirAsia CEO Sunu Widyatmoko (right) is seen here with AirAsia group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes on Sunday in Surabaya after flight QZ8501 was declared missing. The airline is being probed for discrepancies over approved schedules by the local authority. – Reuters pic, January 3, 2015.Indonesia's transport ministry will investigate all Indonesia AirAsia flight schedules from Monday, a government official told Reuters today, as part of a government probe into case of flight QZ8501 that crashed.

"We are going to investigate all AirAsia flight schedules," Djoko Muratmodjo, acting general director for air navigation in the transport ministry said today. "Hopefully we can start on next Monday. We won't focus on licences, just schedules."

"It is possible AirAsia's license in Indonesia might be revoked," he said, stressing that was only one possibility.

Ships searching for the wreck of an AirAsia aircraft that crashed with 162 people on board have pinpointed two "big objects" on the sea floor, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency said today.

A multi-national task force of ships, planes and helicopters have been scouring the northern Java Sea and coastline of southern Borneo to recover the bodies of victims and locate the wreck of Flight QZ8501 and its black box flight recorders.

The transport ministry yesterday temporarily suspended Indonesia AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore flights because it had apparently operated the service beyond the scope of its licence, which permitted flights on four days of the week but not Sundays, when the crash occurred.

"We will also investigate the party that gave permission to AirAsia to fly on that day," Muratmodjo added.

Indonesia AirAsia CEO Sunu Widyatmoko told reporters the company would cooperate with the government investigation, but declined to elaborate. – Reuters, January 3, 2015.