Searchers put to test in search for crashed plane in Indonesian waters

Searchers involved in the search for wreckage and bodies of passengers aboard the ill-fated AirAsia QZ8501 have been put to the test as they found no easy way to carry out their tasks amid lingering heavy weather that has impeded searches at the crash site located in the Java Sea near Borneo's Kumai Bay. [Special coverage]

Bad weather that possibly contributed to the crash of the flight that occurred on Dec. 28 has continued to loom in the days after the disaster and has hampered the efforts by the search and rescue teams to find victims of the crash.

Despite all of these difficulties, Indonesia, however, has won the respect and praise from the international community for its ability in finding the crash site location, just three days after the crash took place.

Indonesia's government-sanctioned agency tasked to undertake search and rescue efforts, the BASARNAS, has extensive experience in carrying out its job due to its past experiences in handling such catastrophes and calamities across the country, from plane crashes, tsunamis, landslides, earthquake and volcanic eruptions that often occur in the nation that is located within the Ring of Fire.

The expertise of the Indonesian agency has been proved again in the search for crashed AirAsia plane QZ8501. Through an excellent coordination with teams from several countries, the BASARNAS-led operation found debris and bodies of the plane's passengers, three days after the incident took place.

The Britain-based FlighGlobal magazine dubs BASARNAS as one of the most modern search and rescue teams in Asia. It said that it is no easy task to find a plane crash location in a county that has nearly 18,000 islands with particularly complicated geographical conditions.

Despite those praises, people running the operation encountered uphill challenges to carry out their jobs due to bad weather.

One of them was Adil Triyanto, an elderly man who leads one of BASARNAS vessels KN SAR Purworejo. The man who is in his mid fifties has to make correct decision to run his vessel amid nasty weather that continues to loom in areas identified as the crash site of AirAsia QZ8501 in the Java Sea near Karimata Strait.

The BASARNAS search vessel has been on duty since the plane was declared missing on Dec. 28.

"We were initially tasked to comb waters around East Belitung as according to the authority, the lost contact location was around those waters. Now we are shifting to the Java Sea to find the debris or passengers of the plane," Adil, the soft-spoken elderly man told Xinhua onboard the Purworejo vessel on Friday.

He leads 17 crew who run the first class-categorized vessel with a dead weight tonnage (DWT) of more than 300 tons.