China sends naval ship to locate black box of AirAsia flight

BEIJING: China has dispatched a naval rescue ship to join the search operations to locate the black box of the ill-fated AirAsia jet which crashed into the sea en route to Singapore from Surabaya, killing all 162 people onboard.

Equipped with underwater search and detect devices and 48 divers, the Peoples' Liberation Army naval vessel left the Sanya port last night and would reach the area of the crash on January 9.

The ship, which earlier took part in the search operation of the missing Malaysian airliner MH370, will help in the search for the debris of the Airbus 320-200 Flight QZ8501 and bodies of the victims.

The missing plane is believed to have crashed into the Java Sea on December 28.