Body wearing life jacket recovered in AirAsia plane search
Search officials in Indonesia say a body recovered from the crashed AirAsia plane was wearing a life jacket.
Seven bodies have now been recovered from the sea.
Strong winds and currents - including waves of up to three metres - are battering the search area in the Java sea, preventing divers from looking for the rest of the wreckage.
A flight attendant identified by her trademark red uniform was one of the bodies recovered in the massive hunt for the 162 victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 in the Java Sea.
The bad weather has also sent wreckage drifting far from the crash site, as grieving relatives prayed for the strength to move forward.
The massive hunt for 162 people who vanished on board the Airbus A320 from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday was severely limited due to heavy rain, wind and thick clouds.
The weather prevented divers from retrieving bodies from the Java Sea today, and helicopters were largely grounded, 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.
“It seems all the wreckage found has drifted more than 50 kilometers from yesterday’s location,” said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue co-ordinator in Pangkalan Bun on Borneo island, the closest town to the site. “We are expecting those bodies will end up on beaches.”
The jet’s disappearance halfway through the two-hour flight triggered an international search for the aircraft involving dozens of planes, ships and helicopters from numerous countries. It is still unclear what brought the plane down.
Recovering bodies was expected to remain difficult for the near future. Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency predicted that the conditions would worsen, with more intense rain, until Friday.
The aircraft’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, must be recovered before officials can start determining what caused the crash. Items recovered so far include a life jacket, an emergency window, children’s shoes, a blue suitcase and backpacks filled with food.
Simple wooden boxes containing bodies, with signs numbered 001 and 002, were unloaded in Pangkalan Bun, with flowers placed on top.
Nearly all the passengers were Indonesian. The country is predominantly Muslim, but most of those on board were Christians of Chinese descent.
One Surabaya church – Manwar Sharon Church – lost 41 members in the crash. Today, around 100 relatives gathered for a prayer service in a hall at Surabaya Airport where the Rev Philip Mantofa urged the crowd to hold on to their faith, despite their pain.
“Some things do not make sense to us, but God is bigger than all this,” he said. “Our God is not evil ... help us, God, to move forward even though we are surrounded by darkness.”
Before breaking up, those gathered stood together and sang with their hands reaching upwards: “I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all to God our savior. I surrender all.”
About 125 family members had planned to travel to Pangkalan Bun, 100 miles (160km) from the area where bodies were first spotted, to start identifying their loved ones. However, Surabaya Airport general manager Trikora Hardjo later said the trip was cancelled after authorities suggested they stay to avoid slowing down the operation.
Instead, some relatives gave blood for DNA tests in Surabaya, where the bodies will be transported, and submitted photos of their loved ones along with identifying information, such as tattoos or birthmarks which could help make the process easier.
Nearly all the passengers from Indonesia were frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly for holidays.
It was 13-year-old Adrian Fernando’s first trip to the city-state and was supposed to be a fun vacation with his aunt, uncle and cousin before he went back to school.
“He is my only son,” said his mother, Linca Gonimasela, 39, who could not join them because of work. “At first, he didn’t want to go, but later on he was persuaded to join them for the New Year holiday.”
Malaysia-based AirAsia’s loss comes on top of the still-unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people on board, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew.
The jet’s last communication indicated the pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the jet disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.
