AirAsia Search Area - The search for the missing bodies from the AirAsia flight QZ 8501, which crashed Dec. 28, 2014, has officially ended. According to the head of the Indonesia rescue agency, the search for the bodies at the Java Sea ended Tuesday night.
"Some of our ships and personnel have been pulled back already and some remain on standby, but officially the operation will be finished on Sunday," says Yusuf Latif, the spokesman for the search and rescue agency in a report by Reuters.
Ships involved in the AirAsia search area are set to be pulled out by Wednesday, says Bambang Soelistyo in a report by BBC News. The AirAsia flight was on its way to Singapore from Indonesia when it lost contact. Approximately 162 people, including crew members, were on board the flight.
Despite only 106 bodies being accounted for in the AirAsia search area, the search has officially ended. Around 56 bodies are still left missing. Even with the announcement made by the head of the search team, families of those missing are left disappointed with the search agency. They however understand that the search cannot continue on for long.
For the CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, he claims that the AirAsia search area has been covered extensively, but the search cannot "go on indefinitely." For him, he considers the search a huge success even if 56 bodies are still left missing at large.
"We have been successful... To get more than 50% is considered a huge success," says Fernandes.
Initial investigation regarding the crash states that the pilot had attempted to fly the plane over a storm. A less-experienced pilot was assigned to the controls at the time of the crash. The AirAsia search area is located in the Java Sea. Most of the bodies recovered were found 1,000 kilometers away, off the island of Sulawesi near Indonesia.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
