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Indonesia confirms finding of main fuselage of AirAsia plane

Xinhua, January 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The main fuselage of the crashed AirAsia plane has been found, Indonesian officials said on Wednesday.

"We have found the main fuselage at 15:05 local time today," Dianta, spokesman of Indonesia National Search and Rescue Agency, told Xinhua via phone on Wednesday, adding that the location is 3 km from where the tail part has been recovered and 0.8 km from where the flight data recorders was lifted.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that divers will enter the main body of the jet and check the situation inside on Thursday.

The wreckage which is believed to have trapped many bodies was detected on Tuesday, said FHB Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency.

Divers were deployed down for a visual check on the jet's main body and it is confirmed after pictures containing the AirAsia logo which reads "Now Everyone can fly" are taken by a remotely operated underwater vehicle, said Ng Eng Hen, the Defence Minister of Singapore, on his facebook page.

Indonesia has recovered both black boxes, the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder, after a 17-day hunt, which is frequently hampered by bad weather and strong underwater currents.

The multinational search operation is going to be terminated in three to four days, Soelistyo said, adding that the search for bodies will continue even after the joint mission ends. Endi