Java Offshore used QINSy during the search for Air Asia flight

Java Offshore assisted in the recent SAR mission for Air Asia flight QZ8501 under Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi (BPPT). During the mission, the survey data was acquired using the QINSy software system which was supplied by QPS bv regional partners THS Geoscience and Hydronav Services Pte Ltd.

On the 8 January 2015, the vessel Java Imperia was mobilised and departed from Kumai Port to join the search mission to locate the fuselage of the QZ8501 aircraft. Search areas assigned to the vessel Java Imperia were “Baruna Jaya 1” and “KN Trisula” west of the flight Surabaya-Singapore flight path. Upon arriving at the site, Java Imperia was tasked by BPPT to further investigate a number of possible debris locations.

The team on board Java Imperia used the USBL system to listen for the pings from the Black Box pinger unit. Detected pings were plotted as QINSy waypoints and recorded for near real-time processing with the QINSy USBL Calibration utility from which probable coordinates were derived. Where a number of pings were picked up in close proximity to one another, a full “USBL calibration” was undertaken, centered on a likely location. Further processing of the additional USBL data provided a best estimate location of the Black Box and these were passed to the AUV team onboard “KN Trisula”, who in turn passed the location to KNKT (National Transportation Safety Committee) and BASARNAS (National search and rescue agency of Indonesia) team on board “KN Jadayat”. A short time later, divers visited the location and recovered the Black Box.

On behalf of QPS bv; our thoughts are with those affected by this tragedy.

Air Asia flight QZ8501 debris as visualized by Qloud