Air Asia Crash Victims Found: Six Bodies from Doomed Jet Recovered from the Java Sea
- At least six bodies recovered from the water by Indonesian naval vessel.Officials have now confirmed wreckage is from AirAsia flight 8501.Navy spokesman earlier claimed 40 bodies were retrieved from Java Sea.But this figure has now been corrected to six by search and rescue teams.
Rescue workers searching for the doomed Air Asia flight 8501 have recovered six bodies from the Java Sea, Indonesian search and rescue teams have confirmed. Bodies were discovered alongside luggage, a plane door and an emergency slide in the water 100 miles off the coast of Borneo Island earlier today, following three days of searching.
Officials have confirmed that the bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Indonesia are from flight 8501, and a naval spokesman said the rescuers remain 'very busy' retrieving the victims.Despite an earlier claim by a navy spokesman that 40 bodies had been recovered, the figure was later corrected by the search agency Basarnas, which said that six bodies had been found so far.
Before darkness fell in the area, search teams identified a shadow that they believe to be the plane's fuselage beneath the water, which is relatively shallow at just 160 feet at its deepest point. Many of the remaining victims are thought likely to still be on board the aircraft
The Airbus A320-200 was 42 minutes into its flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday when it vanished with 162 people on board.
A plastic suitcase, uninflated emergency and oxygen tank from doomed flight 8501 were displayed by rescue workers at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia earlier today
Live Indonesian television news footage showed at least one corpse floating in the water earlier today
Officials have confirmed that the bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Indonesia are from flight 8501, with naval rescue workers (pictured) said to be 'very busy' locating and retrieving the victims
Rescue workers display the uninflated escape slide from flight 8501 at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia
An oxygen tank from doomed AirAsia flight 8501 was found floating in the sea off the coast of Borneo island
This morning several pieces of red, white and black debris were spotted in the Java Sea near Borneo island. The bodies were found in the Java Sea about six miles from Flight 8501's last communications with air traffic control.
Search leader Bambang Soelistyo said: 'As the search and rescue coordinator, I can 95 per cent confirm [this is] debris and objects from the plane. The five per cent is simply because I haven't seen personally seen them.'
Indonesian President Joko Widodo also confirmed plans to visit both the crisis center in Surabaya and the suspected crash location near Pangkalan Bun.
source: daily mail
