First AirAsia Flight 8501 bodies arrive at airport
- 9 years ago
The first two bodies from AirAsia Flight 8501 arrived at a military airstrip at Surabaya's airport on Wednesday, where many of the passengers' relatives are gathered.
It came as bad weather hindered efforts to recover the bodies of passengers and crew from the Java Sea on Wednesday, and sent wreckage drifting far from the crash site.
Some 162 people were aboard the Airbus A320, which vanished on Sunday morning while flying from Surabaya to Singapore. The search for bodies was severely limited due to heavy rain, wind and thick clouds Wednesday.
Hernanto, the head of Surabaya search and rescue, said seven bodies had been recovered so far — three on Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday. Indonesia's Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said they included a woman wearing a flight attendant's uniform. Local media identified her as 20-year-old trainee Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, The Washington Post reported.
Tatang Zaenudin, an official with the search and rescue agency, told Reuters that one of the bodies recovered Wednesday was wearing a life jacket.
Helicopters were largely grounded due to the weather Wednesday, but ships were still scouring the area.
Sonar images identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane, but strong currents were moving the wreckage. Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the jetliner to crash in shallow Indonesian waters.
After more than two days of searching, the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency confirmed Tuesday that debris from the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait, off the coast of Borneo.
Parts of the jet's interior, including an oxygen tank, were brought to the nearest town, Pangkalan Bun on Borneo island. Also found was a bright blue plastic suitcase, completely unscratched. The jet's "black boxes," cockpit voice and flight data recorders that are key to understanding what caused the crash, were not yet recovered.
Simple wooden boxes containing bodies, with signs numbered 001 and
It came as bad weather hindered efforts to recover the bodies of passengers and crew from the Java Sea on Wednesday, and sent wreckage drifting far from the crash site.
Some 162 people were aboard the Airbus A320, which vanished on Sunday morning while flying from Surabaya to Singapore. The search for bodies was severely limited due to heavy rain, wind and thick clouds Wednesday.
Hernanto, the head of Surabaya search and rescue, said seven bodies had been recovered so far — three on Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday. Indonesia's Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said they included a woman wearing a flight attendant's uniform. Local media identified her as 20-year-old trainee Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, The Washington Post reported.
Tatang Zaenudin, an official with the search and rescue agency, told Reuters that one of the bodies recovered Wednesday was wearing a life jacket.
Helicopters were largely grounded due to the weather Wednesday, but ships were still scouring the area.
Sonar images identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane, but strong currents were moving the wreckage. Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the jetliner to crash in shallow Indonesian waters.
After more than two days of searching, the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency confirmed Tuesday that debris from the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait, off the coast of Borneo.
Parts of the jet's interior, including an oxygen tank, were brought to the nearest town, Pangkalan Bun on Borneo island. Also found was a bright blue plastic suitcase, completely unscratched. The jet's "black boxes," cockpit voice and flight data recorders that are key to understanding what caused the crash, were not yet recovered.
Simple wooden boxes containing bodies, with signs numbered 001 and