AirAsia plane: Over 40 bodies, debris found in sea

The hunt for a missing AirAsia passenger plane appeared over Tuesday as wreckage and dozens of bodies were spotted at sea off Indonesia, prompting raw scenes of emotion from sobbing relatives of the 162 people aboard.

Members of the Indonesian air force show items retrieved from the Java sea during search and rescue operations for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan on December 30, 2014. The hunt for a missing AirAsia passenger plane appeared over on December 30 as wreckage and dozens of bodies were spotted at sea off Indonesia, prompting raw scenes of emotion from sobbing relatives of the 162 people aboard. AFP PHOTO / Bay ISMOYO

The Airbus A320-200 disappeared en route from Indonesia’s second largest city Surabaya to Singapore during a storm early Sunday.

All indications now are that it crashed in the Java Sea southwest of the island of Borneo, with debris and dozens of bodies retrieved so far.

An air force plane saw a “shadow” on the seabed believed to be of the missing Flight QZ8501, National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told a news conference in Jakarta.
 

Relatives of the 162 missing hugged each other and burst into tears in Surabaya as they watched footage of one body floating in the sea on a television feed of Soelistyo’s press conference.

An Indonesian warship had recovered more than 40 bodies from the sea “and the number is growing”, navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir told AFP shortly afterwards.