Missing AirAsia flight: teams retrieve bodies from Java Sea

indonesia’s Java Sea seen from a Hercules C130 aircraft during the search for AirAsia flight QZ8501. Photograph: HKV/Barcroft Media

AutoenGadget.com - Teams searching for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 have begun recovering bodies from the Java Sea, as Indonesian officials confirmed that scattered debris found nearby came from the plane.
A major search and rescue effort involving at least 30 ships and 15 aircraft from nine countries has been looking for the aircraft since it vanished early on Sunday morning while carrying 162 passengers from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The findings mark a breakthrough on the operation’s third day.
The Indonesian television station TvOne reportedly broadcast images of a floating body, then apologised for the broadcast after relatives of passengers in Surabaya saw the images on television and burst into tears.
Indonesian officials said that search and rescue teams spotted the “shadow” of a plane beneath the water. “God blessed us today,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters, according to AFP. “At 12:50 the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane.”
He added: “All elements in the areas and search and rescue personnel will be moved to the location.”

Aerial view taken from an Indonesian search and rescue aircraft over the Java Sea shows floating debris. Photograph: Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images

The Indonesian navy said 40 bodies had been recovered as dusk fell. Tri Wibowo, the copilot of one of the planes involved in the search, said he saw “dozens of floating bodies as well as bags and aircraft debris”, according to the Jakarta Post. SB Supriyadi, the director of national search and rescue, told reporters the corpses were not wearing life jackets.
Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto told a press conference on Tuesday that search vessels had found objects located approximately 10km from the location where the plane was last captured on radar. “We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph,” he said.
“It is not really clear … it could be the wall of the plane or the door of the plane,” Putranto said. “Let’s pray that those objects are what we are really trying to find.”

Indonesia’s acting director general of air transport, Djoko Murjatmodjo, said the objects were probably from the body of the aircraft. The objects still need to be analysed to determine whether they are connected with the missing flight.
Tony Fernandes, the chief executive of AirAsia, said he had spent Tuesday meeting the families of passengers and crew, and that it had been one of his toughest days.
“My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501,” he tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. “On behalf of AirAsia my condolences.”
On Tuesday, Indonesian officials announced they would be expanding the search area. France, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the US, New Zealand, South Korea and China are assisting in the search.
The US navy has deployed the USS Sampson, and the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said Australia was deploying two RAAF P3 Orion planes equipped with specialist search equipment.


Source : TheGuardian