21 more bodies pulled out from sea
Print Edition
AFTER nearly a week of searching for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, rescue teams battling monsoon rains had their most successful day yet yesterday, more than tripling the number of bodies pulled from the Java Sea, some still strapped to their seats.
Of the 30 corpses recovered so far, 21 were found yesterday, many of them by a US Navy ship, according to officials.
The Airbus A320 carrying 162 passengers and crew went down on Sunday, halfway into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, to Singapore.
In addition to looking for victims, Search and Rescue Agency Chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said ships from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the US are scouring the ocean floor as they try to pinpoint wreckage and the all-important black boxes.
Soelistyo said a total of 30 bodies have been recovered. More than a third have been pulled out by a US Navy ship, the USS Sampson.
Four crash victims have been identified and returned to their families, including a flight attendant and a 12-year-old boy.
Colonel Yayan Sofiyan, commander of the warship Bung Tomo, said his vessel managed to pull seven bodies from the choppy waters yesterday, five still fastened in their seats.
The data recorder contains crucial information like engine temperature and vertical and horizontal speed; the voice recorder saves conversations between pilots and other sounds coming from inside the cockpit. Toos Saniotoso, an Indonesian air safety investigator, said investigators “are looking at every aspect” as they try to determine why the plane crashed. “From the operational side, the human factor, the technical side, the ATC (air-traffic control) — everything is valuable to us.”
Bad weather, which has hindered the search for the past several days, remained a worry. A drizzle and light clouds covered the area yesterday morning, but rain, strong winds and high waves up to 4 meters were forecast until tomorrow. Strong sea currents have also kept debris moving. That has severely slowed recovery efforts, as well, as bodies drift farther and farther away.
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