REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SAMPIT -- The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has deployed a team to examine ten objects suspected to be the debris from the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, with 162 people aboard.
"Basarnas has deployed a four-crew member Dauphin helicopter, with two rescuers on board to check the objects," Coordinator of the Sampit Basarnas Eko Lativania stated in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan Province, on Tuesday (30/12).
The ten objects were spotted floating in the waters of Pangkalan Bun by Rear Marshal Agus Dwi Putranto of the Indonesian Air Force while flying over Pangkalan Bun aboard a CN-235 aircraft.
He, however, could not confirm whether the objects belonged to the missing AirAsia jet.
The objects were spotted about 10 kilometers from the location where the AirAsia flight QZ8501 made the last contact.
The Singapore-bound plane, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact a few minutes after taking off from Juanda International Airport on Sunday morning, and was believed to have gone missing in the waters between Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan Provinces.
The AirAsia aircraft carried 155 passengers and seven crew members.
The plane has two pilots - Captain Iriyanto and First Officer (FO) Remi Emmanuel Plesel, four cabin crew members - Wanti Setiawati, Khairunnisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar Desano, and Wismoyo Ari Prambudi, along with a technician, Saiful Rakhmad.
According to AirAsia Indonesia, seven foreigners are among those aboard of the missing plane.
The foreign nationals comprise three Koreans, a Singaporean, a British, a Malaysian, and a First Officer (FO) from France. While 155 others, including six crew members, are Indonesian nationals.
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