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Indonesia halts search operation for bodies, wreckages of crashed AirAsia plane

Xinhua, January 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

An Indonesian navy official said on Tuesday that a multinational operation to search bodies of victimes aboard crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501 and retrieve wreckage of the ill-fated plane was called off, a local TV reported.

The announcement was made by Navy Western Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Widodo onboard Navy ship Banda Aceh 31 days after the operation was launched in the Java Sea off the Central Kalimantan, the TVOne reported.

Widodo said the operation effectively ended on Tuesday as no more bodies were found in the wreckage of the aircraft. Search for bodies of passengers and crew members has been the focus of the operation after two black boxes and the tail section of the Airbus A320-200 were retrieved earlier this month.

"The military commander has ordered us to return to our respective bases for further consolidation while waiting for further situation development," he was quoted by TVOne as saying.

The report said all military vessels involved in the operation were told to return to their bases.

The search operation started on Dec. 28 when the Singapore- bound plane crashed into the sea amid bad weather 40 minutes after its takeoff from Indonesia's city of Surabaya in East Java.

As of now, 70 bodies of a total of 162 people onboard the ill- fated flight have been recovered by teams from Indonesia, Australia, the United States, Russia, China, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Some 55 bodies have been identified.

Suryadi B. Supriyadi, commander of the search operation, said at an operation base in Pangkalan Bun that the operation has been extended from the standard search period of seven days stipulated in Indonesia's law. Endi