1st crash victim identified
Print Edition
A PASSENGER aboard AirAsia Flight QZ8501 became the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family yesterday, one of many painful reunions to come, as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.
Hayati Lutfiah Hamid’s identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Colonel Budiyono of East Java’s Disaster Victim Identification Unit. Her body, in a dark casket topped with flowers, was handed over to family members during a brief ceremony at a police hospital in Surabaya. A relative cried as she placed both hands against the polished wood.
The coffin was then taken to a village and lowered into a muddy grave, following Muslim obligations requiring bodies to be buried quickly. An imam said a simple prayer as about 150 people gathered in the drizzling rain, and red flowers were sprinkled over the mound of wet dirt topped by a small white tombstone.
We are “focusing on finding the body of the plane,” Indonesia air force spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters. “There was something like a dark shadow once seen from a plane, but it cannot yet be proven as wreckage.”
Sonar images have identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane. “It’s possible the bodies are in the fuselage,” said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi. “So it’s a race now against time and weather.”
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