46 Bodies From Jet Are Found; Weather Still Slows Search
By TOM MCCAWLEY
New York Times
JAN. 2, 2015
SURABAYA, Indonesia — Rescue officials said on Friday that they had recovered 46 bodies and identified three by the end of the sixth day of search operations for the missing Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, but that stormy seas had prevented them from deploying sophisticated sonar equipment.
Marsma Supriyadi, director of operations for the National Search and Rescue Agency in Indonesia, said eight of the bodies were sent to Surabaya, the capital of East Java.
“With luck we’ll find more, because search operations are continuing,” he told reporters in Pangkalan Bun, close to the site where wreckage from the airliner was discovered on Tuesday. The plane, en route to Singapore, crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday about an hour after leaving Surabaya on what was supposed to be a flight of about 90 minutes.
Three bodies were positively identified after extensive forensic examination, including DNA and dental tests, Mr. Supriyadi said. The three were an AirAsia flight attendant and two passengers, he said.
In the waters off Pangkalan Bun, international experts with acoustic equipment joined teams searching for the missing plane on Friday, but continuing bad weather held back efforts to hunt for the plane’s flight data recorders.
Two ships carrying hydrophones, or underwater listening devices, embarked from Pangkalan Bun. Experts from the French accident inquiry agency B.E.A., which investigates the crashes of all Airbus planes, were aboard one of the vessels.
The search-and-rescue authorities said waves 10 to 16 feet high were holding back recovery operations at the site.
About seven of the bodies that were found on Friday were recovered by a United States Navy ship using acoustic technology, according the search-and-rescue officials. A Navy helicopter took the bodies to Pangkalan Bun.
New York Times
JAN. 2, 2015
SURABAYA, Indonesia — Rescue officials said on Friday that they had recovered 46 bodies and identified three by the end of the sixth day of search operations for the missing Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, but that stormy seas had prevented them from deploying sophisticated sonar equipment.
Marsma Supriyadi, director of operations for the National Search and Rescue Agency in Indonesia, said eight of the bodies were sent to Surabaya, the capital of East Java.
“With luck we’ll find more, because search operations are continuing,” he told reporters in Pangkalan Bun, close to the site where wreckage from the airliner was discovered on Tuesday. The plane, en route to Singapore, crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday about an hour after leaving Surabaya on what was supposed to be a flight of about 90 minutes.
Three bodies were positively identified after extensive forensic examination, including DNA and dental tests, Mr. Supriyadi said. The three were an AirAsia flight attendant and two passengers, he said.
In the waters off Pangkalan Bun, international experts with acoustic equipment joined teams searching for the missing plane on Friday, but continuing bad weather held back efforts to hunt for the plane’s flight data recorders.
Two ships carrying hydrophones, or underwater listening devices, embarked from Pangkalan Bun. Experts from the French accident inquiry agency B.E.A., which investigates the crashes of all Airbus planes, were aboard one of the vessels.
The search-and-rescue authorities said waves 10 to 16 feet high were holding back recovery operations at the site.
About seven of the bodies that were found on Friday were recovered by a United States Navy ship using acoustic technology, according the search-and-rescue officials. A Navy helicopter took the bodies to Pangkalan Bun.
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