Rescuers have retrieved 30 bodies from Indonesian waters where an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board crashed on Sunday, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency F Henry Bambang Sulistyo said here Friday.
“So far, 30 bodies have been found which I have confirmed,” Xinhua quoted him as saying at a press conference.
He said that 10 of the 30 bodies are being moved from the airport at Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan province to Surabaya, the capital of East Java province. While four bodies were still at the airport in Pangkalan Bun, eight others are at two ships and the rest are already in Surabaya city, said Sulistyo.The eight bodies in the two ships included seven at an Indonesian rescue ship KRI Bung Tomo and one at Malaysian rescue ship KD Pahang, he said.“Now, the two ships are struggling against huge waves toward Pangkalan Bun, but so far they have not arrived,” he added.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 with 162 passengers and crew on board went missing after taking off from Surabaya for Singapore early Sunday morning. A drizzle and light clouds covered the area Friday, and rain, strong winds and high waves were forecast until Sunday. Strong sea currents have also kept debris moving. Nine planes, many with metal detecting equipment, were also scouring a 13,500-square-km area off Pangkalan Bun.
“We will focus on underwater detection,” said Sulistyo, adding that ships from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States had been on the scene since early Friday to try to locate the wreckage and flight data and cockpit voice recorders. Meanwhile, three more bodies of the crash victims have been identified. The East Java Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) made the first identification Thursday of the body of Indonesian passenger Hayati lutfiah Hamid. Head of East Java DVI Senior Commissioner Budiyono stated at a press conference in Surabaya, East Java, Friday that the bodies of stewardess Khairunnisa Haidar, passengers Grayson Herbert linaksita and Kevin Alexander Soetjipto have been identified with the help of their fingerprint.