JAKARTA/SINGAPORE: Searchers using sonar equipment today located the wreckage of the ill-fated AirAsia plane carrying 162 people at the bottom of the Java Sea off Indonesia, even as bad weather hampered the recovery of many bloated bodies seen floating around the crash site.
Searchers using sonar equipment have located wreckage from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 at the bottom of the Java Sea, an Indonesian search and rescue official said.
At the moment, they still do not know if it is in one piece or broken up, the official was quoted as saying by CNN.
Nearly three days after the Airbus A320-200 went off the radar, its debris was found yesterday in the Karimata Strait near Pangkalanbun, Central Kalimantan.
Divers were to be deployed to search for bodies and for the plane’s “black box” flight recorders but officials said heavy rain, strong winds and waves of up to 3 meters had forced them to suspend the operation.
At least seven bodies have been retrieved from the sea till now. Three bodies, two female and one male, were recovered yesterday while four more were pulled out today.
One of the bodies pulled out today was dressed in air stewardess uniform, said Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas.
Many bodies were seen floating in the sea by the rescuers and efforts were being made to retrieve them, officials said.
“We are in a wait and see. Weather is bad currently. High tides and heavy rains. Every element is now in their position ready to make a move when weather improves,” Soelistyo said.
“As soon as the weather is clear, the bodies will be brought to Pangkalan Bun,” he said.
Indonesian officials yesterday confirmed that remains and debris found in the waters off Borneo are from the AirAsia plane that took off from Surabaya for Singapore.
Relatives of the 162 people on board the ill-fated plane hugged each other and burst into tears yesterday as they watched television footage of bodies floating in the sea.
The plane was carrying 155 passengers — one British, one Malaysian, one Singaporean, three South Koreans, 149 Indonesians — and seven crew members — six Indonesians and a French co-pilot.
Seventeen of the passengers were children. There were no Indian nationals on board.
The mystery still remains over why the plane lost contact with air traffic control and what happened afterwards.
Families of people aboard AirAsia plane have been briefed by officials that sonar technology has “spotted the plane on sea floor,” a relative of some of the passengers told CNN. –PTI
