AirAsia plane's wreckage found, bodies retrieved

Jakarta, Dec 30: The Indonesian government and AirAsia Tuesday said the wreckage of the AirAsia plane that went missing while flying from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore Sunday morning has been found in the Java Sea, and an unspecified number of bodies have been retrieved. The search operation for the ill-fated flight QZ8501 was Tuesday hampered by bad weather and two to three metres tall sea waves, and will continue Wednesday. While some sections of the media said that as many as 40 bodies have been found, Indonesia's Antara news agency said three bodies have been retrieved. Addressing a press conference in Surabaya in the evening, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the search operation would continue, and all teams should focus on finding passengers and crew, BBC reported. While thanking countries around the region for helping in the search operation, he said he shared the feelings of the relatives of those lost in the accident, and urged them to stay strong in the face of this difficult moment. AirAsia also confirmed that the debris spotted in the Java Sea is from the flight QZ8501 that was missing since Sunday morning. "AirAsia Indonesia regrets to inform that the National Search and Rescue Agency Republic of Indonesia (Basarna) confirmed that the debris found earlier today is indeed from QZ8501, the flight that had lost contact with air traffic control Dec 28," the airline said in an online statement. The debris of the aircraft were found in the Karimata Strait, around 110 nautical miles southwest from Pangkalan Bun in central Kalimantan province in Borneo island. Bad weather and high waves obstructed the retrieval of bodies from the wreckage site in the Java Sea.