REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PANGKALPINANG -- As many as 150 local fishermen of Bangka Belitung Province were deployed to help in tracing the debris of the missing Air Asia QZ8501 aircraft in the local waters.
"Although the Basarnas (National Search and Rescue Agency) has recovered some bodies and debris of the Air Asia QZ8501 in Pangkalan Bun waters, fishermen of Bangka Belitung are on standby to help search for the debris that has drifted due to the sea currents," Chief of Staff of the Military Command Post (Korem) 045/Garuda Jaya Lieutenant Infantry Eko Prayitno reported here on Wednesday (31/12).
The fishermen will take some debris samples from the water.
"These fishermen are familiar with the (local) waters, and thus, they can be relied on to search the debris," Prayitno stated.
The fishermen are coordinating with the babinsa, the non-commissioned officers assigned to villages, and the sub-district military command (koramil).
"Hopefully, involving the fishermen will help in retrieving the debris," Prayitno said.
The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has focused its search and evacuation efforts in the waters near Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
"However, we will have our personnel and fishermen on standby in Bangka Belitung waters, and the previously defined search areas will also be well-monitored," Prayitno stated.
Seven bodies of victims of the missing Air Asia QZ8501 aircraft have been recovered by the search and rescue team during the evacuation process, Basarnas Chief Vice Marshal F. H. Bambang Soelistyo remarked here during a press conference on Wednesday.
The seven bodies comprise four males and three females.
Six of them were still on board the Indonesian Warship KRI Banda Aceh, while the other one is on a Malaysian ship.
"We wanted to evacuate the bodies from the ships, however, two of our helicopters had to return to Pangkalan Bun due to bad weather," Soelistyo reported.
The evacuation process is now focused on two sectors, which are sector four and sector five, located near Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan Province.
As many as 17 helicopters and nine aircraft will be scrambled on the fourth day of the search operation for the aircraft, which went missing with 162 people aboard on Sunday morning (Dec. 28).
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