34 bodies found in AirAsia search
Xinhua, January 5, 2015 Adjust font size:
A U.S. navy's SH- 60 Seahawk helicopter delivered three more bodies found earlier on Sunday to the evacuation command post of the crashed AirAsia jet, making the number of recovered bodies to 34 till Sunday afternoon.
The helicopter brought the bodies from the United States navy ship USS Sampsons that have been keeping the bodies after they are lifted up from waters off Borneo coast.
An Indonesian pilot who witnessed the lifting up of the three bodies said they were found by a Japanese search vessel 108 nautical miles from the command post.
The recently recovered bodies were close to each other, the pilot of Indonesian Air Forces' surveillance plane CN 295 Lieut. Col. Setiawan told Xinhua.
After landed near the command post located in the premises of Indonesia's air forces base, the bodies were put on stretchers by troops and personnel of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency, who later brought them to the ambulances that were awaiting the arrival of the helicopter.
The bodies were eventually transferred to the state hospital Imanuddin for brief identification.
They will later be sent to Surabaya for further identification process before being handed over to families.
The plane went down on Sunday morning enroute from Surabaya for Singapore.
It carried 162 people onboard when the crash took place.
Indonesia's search and rescue teams have located a fifth large object on the seabed till Sunday, while the black boxes have remained missing.
