Official: Steep Climb By AirAsia Flight Suspected

Investigators of the AirAsia jet crash are looking at evidence the A320 might have flown an "unbelievably" steep climb before crashing into the Java Sea, a Reuters report said Wednesday, quoting an unnamed official. Radar data transmitted before the aircraft disappeared Sunday indicate "this rate of climb is very high, too high. It appears to be beyond the performance envelope of the aircraft," the official told Reuters, adding that the data gathered were incomplete.Theflight data and cockpit voice recordersfrom the Airbus have yet to be recovered as efforts to search for wreckage and bodies were limited Wednesday due to heavy rain and winds.

The Reuters report detailed the time of the flight's disappearance while en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. At 6:12 a.m. Sunday, the pilot asked to climb to 38,000 feet from 32,000 feet and deviate to the left to avoid bad weather. Two minutes later, Jakarta air traffic control responded by asking the pilot to go left seven miles and climb to 34,000 feet, but received no reply. The aircraft was still detected by ATC's radar before disappearing at 6.18 a.m.

Meanwhile, sonar images taken during the search could be indicating large parts of the A320 that disappeared over the Java Sea on Sunday, USA Today reported Wednesday. "It seems all the wreckage found has drifted more than 50 kilometers (30 miles) from yesterday's location," said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator, in the report. "We are expecting those bodies will end up on beaches." The weather is expected to remain rough until after New Year's Day. Seven bodies have been recovered of the 162 on board the A320.