Jakarta (Antara Babel) - Low-cost carrier Indonesia AirAsia has violated an agreed flight schedule from Surabaya (East Java province) to Singapore, Transportation Ministry's Acting Director General for Air Transportation Djoko Murdjatmojo said Monday.
"Based on our observation, AirAsia does not fly in accordance with the schedule agreed with the government," Djoko stated at a press conference.
According to the Foreign Flight Permit Letter No AU/008/30/6/DRJU/DAU issued for the year of 2014/2015, AirAsia's flight services on the Surabaya to Singapore route are supposed to be on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. However, the ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 flew on Sunday morning, he pointed out.
Djoko remarked that if AirAsia wanted to change its flight schedule, it should have sent an official proposal to the Directorate General for Air Transportation.
"We never received any official letter from AirAsia requesting a change in its flight schedule," Djoko emphasized.
He noted the Transportation Ministry will soon audit-related authorities who were involved in AirAsia's scheduling case. Djoko added he will revoke the flight permits of airlines that violate agreed flying schedule.
Earlier, Head of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Vice-Marshal F Henry Bambang Soelistyo said at least 31 bodies of AirAsia crash victims have been recovered and evacuated so far.
"Until now, the number of corpses that have been confirmed is 31. Of this, 30 have been evacuated to Surabaya while one is still aboard a ship and will be transported to Pangkalan Bun first," Soelistyo explained.
Besides this, a section of the ill-fated plane has been found by a joint team deployed in the search for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501.
The search and rescue operations as well as the evacuation of the bodies of victims have been hindered by bad weather conditions such as heavy rains, strong wind, and huge waves reaching up to four meters in height.
An underwater search for the plane's fuselage has been stopped due to bad weather conditions, he noted.
"The operation has been halted until the weather improves," he added.
Meanwhile, nine ships are ready with divers to locate the fuselage.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared on Dec. 28, en route from Surabaya in East Java to Singapore, with 162 people on board. They comprised 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, a British, a Singaporean, a French, and a Malaysian.
The plane is believed to have crashed in the Java Sea near the Karimata Strait, some 95 Nautical miles (Nm) from Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
The search is coordinated by Basarnas and also involves the military, police, and transportation ministry, besides teams from several foreign countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the US, Japan, China, South Korea, India, and Russia.
