QZ8501: Bodies likely trapped in aircraft

The majority of the bodies of those who died on AirAsia flight QZ8501 are likely to be trapped inside the aircraft, search teams said on Monday.

The head of Indonesia’s National Search & Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Vice Marshal FHB Soelistyo, said the lack of bodies being recovered from the water means that many more victims are likely to remain inside the fuselage.

“From day to day the number of bodies recovered continues to fall,” Soelistyo was quoted saying by Indonesia’s Antara news agency during a press briefing.

“I predict if what I suppose to be the location of the plane’s fuselage turns out to be true I still can expect that the bodies of our brothers are still in the plane’s fuselage in the seabed.”

By Sunday evening, 34 bodies had been recovered and flown to Surabaya. That leaves a total of 128 passengers and crew unaccounted for.

The search and recovery effort is being coordinated by Basarnas, with help from numerous countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the US, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Russia.

Flight QZ8501 crashed into the sea on 28 December 2014 on a flight from Surabaya to Singapore, with 162 passengers and crew onboard.

sourced:traveldailymedia.com