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Saturday, 3 January 2015

AirAsia QZ8501: Search teams find more bodies at sea


More bodies have been recovered from the Java
Sea, five days after AirAsia flight QZ8501
crashed, bringing the total found so far to 30,
Indonesian rescue officials say.

The Airbus A320 disappeared with 162 people on
board while flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to
Singapore.
Operations to recover victims continue but no
survivors have been found.
Specialist equipment has arrived to aid the search
for the plane itself and its "black box" flight
recorders.
However officials said it could not be used on
Friday because of high waves, Reuters reported.
The plane is almost certainly at the bottom of the
relatively shallow Java Sea.
The cause of the crash is not known yet.
In another development, it has emerged that
AirAsia did not have official permission to fly the
Surabaya-Singapore route on Sunday - the day of
the crash - but was licensed on four other days
of the week.
The Indonesian authorities are suspending the
company's flights on this route with immediate
effect pending an investigation, a transport
ministry statement said. 'Strapped in seats'
"As of now, the results that I can confirm for you
are that the number of dead bodies recovered is
30," the head of Indonesia's search and rescue
agency, Bambang Soelistyo, said on Friday.
Some were reportedly still strapped into their
seats when they were found.
The aircraft's fuselage has still not been located,
and it is thought most of the passengers could
be inside.
"Waves were between three and four metres
today, making it difficult to load bodies onto
ships and [move them] between ships," Bambang
Soelistyo told reporters.
Some vessels would search through the night, he
added. "Tonight we are sending tug boats which
should make the [body] transfers easier."
He estimated the fuselage was at a depth of
about 25-30m (80-100ft).

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