By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
A search operation for victims and debris from the AirAsia flight that went missing with 162 people on board were hampered by heavy rain and rough seas Wednesday following the recovery of seven bodies.
Bambang Soelistyo, National Search and Rescue Agency chief, earlier told a press conference in Jakarta that three bodies recovered Wednesday morning belonged to two men and a woman – a flight attendant identified by the airline’s uniform.
A seventh corpse was also pulled from the sea by Malaysian naval vessel KD Lekir on Wednesday morning.
As the operation to retrieve the remains of the jet and those on board, bad weather conditions hampered efforts. Tatang Zaenudin, an official with the rescue agency reported waves up to 5 meters high.
Debris from flight QZ8501, including an emergency door, were initially found by a Hercules C-130 search plane at 11.00 local time (04.00 GMT) Tuesday in Karimata Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
While initial reports on the number of recovered bodies varied, with an Indonesian Navy spokesman saying 40 bodies had been retrieved from the waters, none were discovered wearing life jackets.
The discovery - 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Pangkalan Bun town in Central Kalimantan province - came on the third day of the search as officials widened the operation to cover 97,000 square miles (156,000 square km).
The location of the debris matched information from two fishermen in Pangkalan Bun who said that they heard a thud and saw explosions Sunday morning, search and rescue agency spokesman Yusuf Larif said.
The search continued Wednesday, with the focus of the search shifting closer to Borneo island.
Indonesia has deployed 37 ships, nine planes and 17 helicopters in the hunt for the airliner, as more 65 divers search for victims. Other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Australia, have provided around a dozen naval vessels and aircraft.
Meanwhile, a disaster victim identification team from the East Java police has begun collecting data.
Budiyono, a doctor working with the East Java police, said: "In addition to ante-mortem data collection of the victims’ physical characteristics, such as their DNA and fingerprints, we will gather those of nearby family members.”
The results of the search operation will first be transported to a crisis center in Pangkalan Bun, and then to Surabaya - Indonesia’s second city and the flight’s departure point - to be identified.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo met with the victims’ grieving families at Surabaya’s Juanda international airport Tuesday night to pass on his personal condolences.
"For the all the passengers’ families, I also feel their loss and we pray the families will be given the fortitude to deal with this tragedy," he said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes refused to speculate about what had happened during the flight.
"At the moment, let the focus be the search for victims. Do not speak yet about the cause of the accident," he told reporters.
The last contact with the flight was at 06.12 a.m. Sunday when the pilot requested permission to veer left and climb to 38,000 feet (11,600 meters) to avoid heavy storm clouds.
The pilot was granted permission to change course but not to climb immediately due to another flight on the same path. No distress signal was received before the plane disappeared from radar.
The majority of those aboard were Indonesians although the co-pilot was French and the passengers included three South Koreans, a Malaysian and a British national reportedly travelling with his Singaporean daughter.
The loss of AirAsia is the third major air disaster to hit Southeast Asia this year. In March, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went missing en route to Beijing with 239 aboard and four months later Flight MH17 crashed in Ukraine’s Donetsk region near the border with Russia, killing all 298 aboard.
AirAsia had a positive safety record and had not reported any previous disasters.
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