Bodies and Debris from Missing AirAsia Plane Pulled from Sea off Indonesia
Reuters Tue Dec 30, 2014
Family member collapses after news of bodies found is announced
Debris Found
An Indonesian Navy diver prepares to load his gear onto a flight to Kalimantan in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka December 30, 2014. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside
Body Bags Being Prepared
Search and rescue workers prepare to load body bags onto a flight to Kalimantan in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka December 30, 2014.
Photos Credit: Reuters/Beawiharta
(Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers searching for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday, prompting relatives of those on board watching TV footage to break down in tears.
Indonesia AirAsia's Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
The navy said 40 bodies had been recovered. The plane has yet to be found.
"My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ8501," airline boss Tony Fernandes tweeted. "On behalf of AirAsia, my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am."
The airline said in a statement that it was inviting family members to Surabaya, "where a dedicated team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that all of their needs are met".
Pictures of floating bodies were broadcast on television and relatives of the missing already gathered at a crisis center in Surabaya wept with heads in their hands. Several people collapsed in grief and were helped away.
"You have to be strong," the mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, said as she comforted relatives. "They are not ours, they belong to God."
A navy spokesman said a plane door, oxygen tanks and one body had been recovered and taken away by helicopter for tests.
"The challenge is waves up to three meters high," Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, head of the Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters, adding that the search operation would go on all night. He declined to answer questions on whether any survivors had been found.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States have been involved in the search.
The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic, officials said.
It was traveling at 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet, officials said earlier.
Pilots and aviation experts said thunderstorms, and requests to gain altitude to avoid them, were not unusual in that area.
The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, the airline said.
The aircraft had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus.
News Announced that Some Bodies are Found..
Family members of passengers onboard missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 pray at a waiting area in Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, December 30, 2014.
WARNING; VIDEOs Show Distressing Scenes
AirAsia QZ 8501 Wreck FOUND Under Ocean (RAW VIDEOs)
UPDATE:
AirAsia Crash Victims Found: Six Bodies from Doomed Jet are Recovered from the Java Sea
- Bodies of crash victims spotted floating in sea off coast of Borneo Island
- At least six bodies recovered from the water by Indonesian naval vessel
- Officials have now confirmed wreckage is from AirAsia flight 8501
- Navy spokesman earlier claimed 40 bodies were retrieved from Java Sea
- But this figure has now been corrected to six by search and rescue teams
Daily Mail UK, 30 December 2014
Rescue workers searching for the doomed AirAsia flight 8501 have recovered six bodies from the Java Sea, Indonesian search and rescue teams have confirmed.
Bodies were discovered alongside luggage, a plane door and an emergency slide in the water 100 miles off the coast of Borneo Island earlier today, following three days of searching.
Officials have confirmed that the bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Indonesia are from flight 8501, and a naval spokesman said the rescuers remain 'very busy' retrieving the victims.
Despite an earlier claim by a navy spokesman that 40 bodies had been recovered, the figure was later corrected by the search agency Basarnas, which said that six bodies had been found so far.
Before darkness fell in the area, search teams identified a shadow that they believe to be the plane's fuselage beneath the water, which is relatively shallow at just 160 feet at its deepest point. Many of the remaining victims are thought likely to still be on board the aircraft
The Airbus A320-200 was 42 minutes into its flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday when it vanished with 162 people on board.
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A plastic suitcase, uninflated emergency and oxygen tank from doomed flight 8501 were displayed by rescue workers at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia earlier today
Live Indonesian television news footage showed at least one corpse floating in the water earlier today
Rescue workers display the uninflated escape slide from flight 8501 at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia
An oxygen tank from doomed AirAsia flight 8501 was found floating in the sea off the coast of Borneo island
Tragic: The flight went missing from radar at 6.18am local time - six minutes after last communication with air traffic control - while travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. Search and rescue workers spotted a number of bodies and debris floating in the water this morning
This morning several pieces of red, white and black debris were spotted in the Java Sea near Borneo island.
The bodies were found in the Java Sea about six miles from Flight 8501's last communications with air traffic control.
Search leader Bambang Soelistyo said:
'As the search and rescue coordinator, I can 95 per cent confirm [this is] debris and objects from the plane. The five per cent is simply because I haven't seen personally seen them.'
Indonesian President Joko Widodo also confirmed plans to visit both the crisis center in Surabaya and the suspected crash location near Pangkalan Bun.
Indonesia plane search chief says bodies are being recovered
Members of the Indonesian Air Force show items retrieved from the Java Sea during the recovery operation
The emergency slide from flight 8501 was taken to an Indonesia Air Force press conference earlier today
The recovery of the six bodies came as devastated relatives of AirAsia crash victims collapsed in grief and were taken to hospital after an Indonesian television station showed disturbing uncensored footage of the corpses floating in the sea.
Images shown on a news channel showed at least one body floating in the water, causing the victims' relatives - who were watching live reports at crisis-centre at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya - to burst into tears, with some fainting and requiring hospital treatment.
The decision to broadcast the uncensored images on live television has led to severe criticism of news channel TV One.
Grieving friends and relatives of passengers sat sobbing quietly into tissues an gazed into thin air as they took in the news and realized that the 'bodies could be their relatives.
Police officers had to be drafted in to stop press from entering the building, according to Time Magazine.
The bodies were seen from a helicopter and were taken to an Indonesian navy ship.
Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir said several victims were found while Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto said at least one body had been found.
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