ANKARA
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has said it will provide technical assistance to investigators after Indonesian authorities announced they had located the accident site of the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501.
The offer was announced Tuesday after the bodies of at least 40 people were recovered and wreckage of the AirAsia Airbus A320-200 was found 100 km (100 miles) off Indonesia's Borneo coast.
The aircraft manufacturer said in a statement that it was committed "to provide all necessary technical assistance to the investigation authorities in order to establish the cause of this tragic accident."
Airbus also sent a message of condolence to the families of the victims of the flight QZ8501.
The statement added that "investigations will be done in line with international convention and the official investigation into this accident is being led by the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC)."
The committee will be supported by international safety agencies including the French safety investigation authority, BEA, the statement said.
Indonesian authorities said they had deployed 37 ships and aircraft in the search for the airliner while other countries provided about a dozen naval vessels and aircraft.
The last contact with the flight was at 06.12 local time on Sunday (2312 GMT on Saturday) when the pilot requested permission to veer left and climb to 38,000 feet (11,600 meters) to avoid heavy storm clouds.
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