AirAsia didn’t have permission to fly

JAKARTA, Indonesia— AirAsia didn’t have permission to fly from Surabaya to Singapore on the Sunday morning that Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea, Indonesian officials said Saturday.
Shortly after Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said it had detected two large parts of the aircraft on the seabed, transport ministry spokesman J.A. Barata said the airline was only permitted to fly the route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from late 2014 to early 2015.
“So AirAsia has committed a violation of the route that has been given to them,” Mr. Barata told The Wall Street Journal. He said the company’s flights from Surabaya to Singapore had consequently been suspended on Friday.

Tommy Soetomo, the head of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I, said AirAsia had a slot to fly on Sundays. But Mr. Barata said that information was outdated and that AirAsia should have returned the slot to the government. Before October, AirAsia had permission to fly daily to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, he said. He didn’t say why the number of flights was cut.
Indonesia’s acting director general of aviation, Djoko Murjatmodjo, added that the Transportation Ministry is investigating why AirAsia was flying the route outside its permitted schedule, which covers the period Oct. 26 to March 28. The probe will include an internal investigation of the ministry, he said.
At a news conference in Surabaya on Saturday, AirAsia Indonesia’s chief executive Sunu Widyatmoko said the company would fully cooperate with the government investigation. He said the management of AirAsia won’t comment further until the investigation is complete.
Mr. Barata said the investigation will also cover other airlines.
The Airbus A320, which had 162 people on board, lost contact with air traffic control early Sunday morning midway between Surabaya and Singapore. Saturday, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said sonar scans had identified two objects in about 30 meters of water that represent the main part of the aircraft.
“With the oil slick that we found and the discovery of the two big objects, I can confirm that this is the big part of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for all this time,” Mr. Soelistyo said, adding that a remotely operated vehicle would be sent to take pictures of the objects, though rough weather is hampering the deployment.
Some bodies have been recovered from the Java Sea and a handful of burials and memorial services have taken place, but the majority of passengers and crew are still unaccounted for as rough weather has slowed the search and recovery process.
Budi Sampurna, a professor at the University of Indonesia and member of the forensic team responsible for identifying bodies from the crash, said one autopsy had already taken place, but he didn’t comment on the cause of death. He also didn’t say how many other autopsies were planned.
Mr. Soelistyo said Friday evening that a total of 30 bodies had been recovered. Earlier Friday, searchers brought the bodies of 10 victims to shore. Following a ceremonial military send-off, they were flown to Surabaya.
The bodies were placed in white coffins with a bouquet of flowers on top. Each coffin had a sign bearing the recovery number of the body inside, 009 through 018. The coffins were brought by ambulance to the airport. Then, each was carried by eight men in military formation to a waiting Indonesian Air Force airplane.