US to send second ship to help search for AirAsia jet: Pentagon
Iran Press TV
Tue Dec 30, 2014 5:9PM GMT
The US Navy is sending a second ship to Indonesia to assist the country with the search for the missing AirAsia plane that disappeared en route from Surabaya in Indonesia's east Java to Singapore, the Pentagon says.
The USS Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship, is 'prepared to deploy from the region from Singapore,' Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said on Tuesday. 'That ship can be ready to sail in a day or two."
The Pentagon has already deployed the USS Sampson, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, to the area to help search for wreckage from the passenger plane that apparently crashed off the Indonesian coast on Sunday with 162 people on board.
Kirby said the US Navy would also provide maritime patrol aircraft to 'help map the debris field on the surface' as well as sonar equipment if necessary to track down wreckage at the bottom of the sea.
On Tuesday, rescuers found debris and bodies at sea that were believed to be from AirAsia Flight QZ8501.
The search operation currently involves 30 ships and 50 aircraft.
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said, 'There is no time limit on the operation.'
Reports said that over 1,100 search and rescue personnel from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and New Zealand have joined Indonesia's teams.
One of the pilots of the Airbus A320-200, in the last communication from the cockpit to air traffic control, sought permission to climb from 32,000 feet (9,754 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) due to the bad weather, which was not allowed because another plane was in the way.
The AirAsia plane went missing while the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-370 earlier this year still remains a mystery.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, mysteriously vanished from radar screens early on March 8 less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight to Beijing, China.
GJH/GJH
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