(NIGERIA) Search crews looking for the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 have spotted four “large objects” in the Java Sea, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said Saturday.
Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, the head of the agency, said he was still awaiting photographic confirmation, he told reporters at a news conference in Jakarta, “I can assure you these are the parts of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for.”
Heavy wind and waves continued to hamper search efforts, now in their seventh day, and Soelistyo said the strong current was making it difficult to operate the remote-controlled underwater vehicle that would send back pictures confirming the discovery.
The objects were found near an oil spill that authorities said indicated that they could be close to locating the plane’s main fuselage, he said.
Meanwhile, Search crews have now recovered 30 bodies from the AirAsia crash, including five who were found still strapped in their seats, Indonesian officials said.
Late Friday, the rescue agency, known as BASARNAS, said 30 bodies had been recovered from the jet that went down last Sunday in the Java Sea with 162 passengers and crew on board. Most have been found in a relatively small area, which officials said was a further indication that they were zeroing in on the plane’s main structure and presumably its black box data recorders.
Col. Yayan Sofiyan, commander of the warship Bung Tomo, told MetroTV that the five were among seven bodies retrieved from the Java Sea and taken to an Indonesian vessel Friday. Indonesian search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo later said a total of 30 bodies have been recovered from Flight 8501.
There were 162 passengers and crew onboard the plane that went down Sunday, half-way through a flight from Indonesia to Singapore. (NEWSWATCH TIMES)
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