Teams searching for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 have begun recovering bodies from the Java Sea, as Indonesian officials confirmed that scattered debris found nearby came from the plane.
A major search and rescue effort involving at least 30 ships and 15 aircraft from nine countries has been looking for the aircraft since
it vanished early on Sunday morning while carrying 162 passengers from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The findings mark a breakthrough on the operation’s third day.
The Indonesian television station TvOne reportedly broadcast images of a floating body, then apologised for the broadcast after relatives of passengers in Surabaya saw the images on television and burst into tears.
Indonesian officials said that search and rescue teams spotted the “shadow” of a plane beneath the water. “God blessed us today,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters, according to AFP. “At 12:50 the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane.”
He added: “All elements in the areas and search and rescue personnel will be moved to the location.”
Tri Wibowo, the copilot of a Hercules C130, one of the planes involved in the search, said he saw “dozens of floating bodies as well as bags and aircraft debris”, according to the Jakarta Post. SB Supriyadi, the director of national search and rescue, told reporters the corpses were not wearing life jackets.
BBC News Published on Dec 28, 2014
AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 travelling from Indonesia to Singapore goes missing with 162 people on board, the company says. Officials says contact was lost over the Java Sea. They've called off the search for the night - to resume in the morning.
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