Divers Recover Six More Bodies From AirAsia Wreckage

Jakarta Globe, Suara Pembaruan & Agencies, 22, 2015

Indonesian rescuers recovered six more bodies from the wreckage of AirAsia
 Flight QZ8501 on Thursday. A total of 59 bodies have so far been recovered.
(Reuters Photo/Beawiharta)

Jakarta. Indonesian searchers on Thursday recovered six more bodies from the wreckage of the Indonesia AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month, killing all 162 people onboard.

Divers found the six victims, some of whom were still strapped into their seats, trapped under plane debris not far from the jet’s fuselage, authorities said.

“We have found six bodies, four of whom were females and two males, all adults,” said S.B. Supriyadi, an official from Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

Identity cards, driving licenses and bank cards were found inside some of the victims’ pockets, Supriyadi said.

The victims were evacuated from the search site in the Karimata Strait to nearby Pangkalan Bun on Kalimantan for identification.

Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control midway through its flight from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec. 28. There were no survivors.

A total of 59 bodies have so far been recovered, as well as the plane’s two black boxes.

Indonesian military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said searchers were aided by fine weather on Thursday, but accessing the plane’s fuselage — where more victims are believe to be trapped — is proving difficult.

One of eight mooring buoys installed to locate the main part of the Airbus A320 has been lost, Fuad said.

“Today the divers had been swimming around the location but could not find the plane’s body,” he said.

The cause of AirAsia‘s first fatal crash is not yet known, though investigators have ruled out foul play.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan on Tuesday told a parliamentary hearing that radar data showed the plane had climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, and then stalled.