LIFT Airplane
Bottom Line: No, the aircraft was never located or recovered.
Although the impact zone was known to within a half mile (satellite tracking and eye witnesses, see below), the water depths in that area (from 300 to 650 feet) made the search very difficult.
Citing security concerns, the Indonesian government's Search & Recovery organization (BASARNAS) would not allow LIFT to place their own private S&R team on site which is what LIFT had requested, and BASARNAS also refused to release any search data that they had gathered, which would have allowed LIFT to learn more about the possible location of the aircraft. We (LIFT USA representative) even located the US company who supplied the Sonar and ROV equipment to BASARNAS originally, in the hope that the highly trained US representatives could work with BASARNAS in the recovery effort, but again BASARNAS refused to allow them to be involved.
After exhausting all possible options and avenues that LIFT had available, the search was called off by BASARNAS towards the end of December after two months of their searching.
Not a happy outcome for anyone involved, especially for the parents of the two lost souls.
As to maintenance - after full investigation of all maintenance records by the DGCA and interviews with pilots and students who flew the aircraft during two prior flights that day with zero squawks, no mechanical or electrical issues were suspected.
Based on the last satellite tracking pings received from the aircraft (LIFT has SpiderTracks satellite tracking systems installed in all their aircraft to monitor location live throughout all flights), there is some speculation as to what may have happened whilst conducting the commercial maneuvers that were being taught during the mission, however without recovery of the aircraft, we will never know what actually happened.
Last edited by FlyFloats; 6th May 2015 at 16:19.