"Two bodies have been flown by our Boeing aircraft from Pangkalan Bun to Surabaya," Chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency F.H.B. Soelistyo stated here during a press conference on Wednesday.
Due to favorable weather conditions, the teams helicopter was able to evacuate the two bodies from the Indonesian warship KRI Banda Aceh, which was in the waters near Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
"The other five bodies are now being evacuated. Hopefully, the team will be able to move the bodies from the ship," Soelistyo affirmed.
Bad weather has been hindering the evacuation process of the debris and victims of the ill-fated aircraft.
Seven bodies of the victims of the missing AirAsia QZ8501 aircraft have been recovered by the search and rescue team during the evacuation process on Wednesday.
The seven bodies comprise four males and three females.
The evacuation process is now focused on two sectors, which are sector four and sector five, located near Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan Province.
As many as 17 helicopters and nine aircraft will be scrambled on the fourth day of the search operation.
The AirAsias Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people had gone missing on Sunday morning (Dec. 28) after losing contact with air traffic control on its way from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore.
The Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 lost contact after the pilot requested to ascend to 38 thousand feet from 32 thousand feet to avoid bad weather over the sea area between Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan.
The aircraft was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members. It took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 5:36 a.m. local time and lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. local time.
The plane, piloted by Captain Iriyanto and First Officer (FO) Remi Emmanuel Plesel, was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time.
Seven foreigners are among the passengers of the missing jet. The foreign nationals comprise three Koreans, a Singaporean, a British, a Malaysian, and a First Officer (FO) from France.
(Reporting by Virna P. Setyorini/Uu.INE/A059/KR-BSR/B003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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