PANGKALAN BUN —Tucked in a corner of Pangkalan Bun’s Iskandar Airport is an unassuming, single-storey building with a roof of corrugated metal. It contains pieces of debris — from suitcases to airplane seats — from the downed AirAsia flight QZ8501, collected from the Java Sea by warships, divers and other military vessels equipped with sonars that have been plying the waters for almost two weeks.

As the search continues, with hopes that the Airbus A320-200’s black boxes would be brought to shore soon, a team of seven investigators are sorting the debris that has been brought in.

The investigators — four from Airbus and three from Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) — identify the debris by matching them with a diagram of the aircraft provided by the manufacturer.

So far, the debris includes three escape slides, 10 passenger seats, a flight-attendant’s seat, some passenger luggage and three nitrogen bottles used for inflating life rafts.

NTSC investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said every part of the aircraft had been given a serial number. “We can identify the parts because of these numbers. We can check with the list and then understand whether it was on the left or right, in the front or at the back (of the aircraft),” he said.

While search and recovery personnel usually discard organic material in the process of debris retrieval, investigators are required to wear masks and gloves when handling the pieces, as there may still be some material containing bacteria. The organic material could be food stored inside the aircraft and in passengers’ luggage that has decomposed after many days in the sea, said Mr Nurcahyo.

What happens to the wreckage after it has been processed remains a question. Mr Nurcahyo said it would depend on whether there is enough space to store it in Pangkalan Bun. If not, it may be transported to Jakarta.