According to published accounts, several aircraft types participated in the search for Air Asia QZ8501. These included the recon version of the Boeing 737, the P-3 Orion, the P-8 Poseidon (another Boeing 737 variant), the Indonesian-made CASA/IPTN CN-235, and the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.
But the C-130 Hercules beat them all.
The first confirmed sighting of wreckage from QZ8501 was made by an Indonesian C-130 Hercules. The pilots attributed this to the C-130's loitering power. Theoretically, a C-130 can stay on the air for up to 14 hours (the P-3 Orion, another Lockheed aircraft, can actually stay longer - up to 16 hours). So when the Indonesian Air Force's Boeing 737 and CN-235s already have to head home to re-fuel, the C-130 was still up there continuing the search.
But what led the pilots to the crash site might be the stuff of legends. It was a blue heart-shaped balloon floating in the middle of the Java Sea. The kind normally found in the last-minute gift shops of airports.
When they found another floating heart-shaped balloon (this time, a maroon one), they were convinced that they are in the general area of the crash site.
Eventually, they were able to identify the silhouette of what looks like an aircraft under only about 100 feet of water.
And the rest, as they always say, is history.
Not bad for an aircraft which first flew in 1954...
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