REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SURABAYA -- The East Java police`s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit has already identified the corpses of 32 victims out of the 48 recovered from the ill-fated AirAsia flight`s crash.
The Head of the East Java police DVI Senior Commissioner Budiyono made the revelation on Sunday, which marks day 15 of the ongoing search and rescue operation.
Three of the bodies that their identification was announced on Sunday comprising two South Korean couples, Seongbeom Park (37) and Kyung Hwa Lee (34), and an Indonesian national, Vera Chandra Kho, Budiyono stated.
The RS Bhayangkara Hospital still needs to identify the bodies of 16 other victims, he pointed out.
AirAsia flight QZ8501, carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members, went missing on Sunday morning, December 28, after losing contact with air traffic control on its flight from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore.
The plane lost contact after its pilot requested to climb 38 thousand feet from 32 thousand feet to avoid rough weather over the seas between Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan.
It is believed to have crashed in the Java Sea near the Karimata Strait, some 95 nautical miles from Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
The aircraft took off from the Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 5.36 a.m. local time and lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control at 6.17 a.m. local time.
The plane, piloted by Captain Iriyanto and First Officer (FO) Remi Emmanuel Plesel, was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 8.30 a.m. local time.
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