PANGKALAN BUN: Indonesia on Monday ordered the suspension of aviation officials as it investigates the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501, also promising action against any domestic airlines violating their flying permits.

Highlighting the depth of Indonesia’s air safety problems, the Transportation Ministry announced harsh measures against everyone who allowed AirAsia Flight 8501 to take off without proper permits, including the suspension of the airport’s operator and officials in the control tower.

The crackdown came as a major search in the Java Sea entered its ninth day, struggling in bad weather to find more bodies or the “black box” flight data recorders which are crucial to determining the cause of the disaster.

The routing permits of all airlines flying in the country also will be examined to see if they are violating the rules, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting director general of air transportation.

“Who knows if other airlines are also doing the same thing,” he said.

The crackdown comes as searchers continue to fight bad weather while combing the Java Sea for bodies and wreckage of the Airbus A320 that crashed Dec. 28, killing all 162 passengers and crew on board.

The plane was traveling between Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, and Singapore on a Sunday. Officials have since said its permit for the popular route was only for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and that AirAsia quietly switched three of those days. Officials in Singapore, however, have said the plane was authorized to fly on Sundays from its end.

While the airline is being investigated, Indonesia announced Saturday that it banned all AirAsia flights between Surabaya and Singapore.

AirAsia Indonesia President Director Sunu Widyatmoko said by text Monday that the airline will cooperate with the government during the evaluation, but would not comment on the permit allegations until the process is complete.

Murjatmodjo said key individuals who allowed to plane to fly without permits would be suspended while the investigation is pending.

The ministry also issued a directive Dec. 31 ordering all airlines to provide pilots with up-to-date weather reports before they take off, he said. Currently, it’s up to the captain and co-pilot to research and evaluate flying conditions before departing. In other countries, carriers’ flight operations departments perform that task for them.

He also planned to meet Monday with the Corruption Eradication Commission to discuss whether to launch a graft probe into AirAsia’s operations. Business in the country is commonly conducted using bribery, with payoffs often seen as the most efficient way to get things done.

After Indonesia deregulated its aviation industry in the 1990s, dozens of airlines emerged making air travel affordable for the first time for many in the world’s fourth most populous nation. But a string of accidents in recent years has once again raised urgent questions about the safety of Indonesia’s booming airline sector, with experts saying poor maintenance, rule-bending, and a shortage of trained professionals are partly to blame.

Only three more bodies were recovered Monday, bringing the total found to 37. A total of 162 passengers and crew were aboard the Airbus A320-200 on Dec. 28 when it crashed en route from Indonesia’s second city Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia alleges the plane was flying on an unauthorised schedule. The Transport Ministry has now ordered airport and air navigation managers to “suspend the personnel involved” in the activity of Flight 8501, director general of air transport Djoko Murjatmodjo told reporters.

AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysia-based AirAsia, has already been suspended from flying the Surabaya-Singapore route -- although Singapore officials said they had given permission for the flight at their end.

Murjatmodjo said they would halt any other airline found violating its permitted flight schedule in the country, which has a patchy aviation safety record.

“If, after assessment, another airline is also not flying on the approved schedule, that is a violation and we will suspend it too,” Murjatmodjo said, adding that they were investigating how AirAsia had been flying on an unapproved schedule without the ministry’s knowledge.

Search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo meanwhile said three more bodies from the crash were recovered Monday, but only two advance divers had been able to go down to the wreckage off the island of Borneo. Five large parts of the plane including the suspected tail have so far been located.




“The current was strong. So (most of) the divers are still on standby,” Soelistyo told reporters.

The search, assisted by several countries including the United States and Russia, has been trying to expand eastwards on suspicions that strong currents have caused parts of the plane to drift.

Earlier in the day several aircraft made their way from Pangkalan Bun, a town on Borneo with the nearest airstrip to the wreckage, to scour the sea’s surface. Speedboats were sweeping the coastline to look for any bodies that may have drifted ashore.

Indonesia’s military chief General Moeldoko said he had offered to take relatives out to the crash site to pay their respects.

“We will bring them to the navy ships and we will take them to the location to scatter flowers, and I hope coming to the location can reduce their sadness and the feeling of loss,” he told reporters.