URABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — A passenger aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 became the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family Thursday, one of many painful reunions to come, as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.
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Hayati Lutfiah Hamid's identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Col. Budiyono of East Java's Disaster Victim Identification Unit.
body, in a dark casket topped with flowers, was handed over to family
members during a brief ceremony at a police hospital in Surabaya, the
Indonesian city where the plane took off. A relative cried as she placed
both hands against the polished wood.
The
coffin was then taken to a village and lowered into a muddy grave,
following Muslim obligations requiring bodies to be buried quickly. An
imam said a simple prayer as about 150 people gathered in the drizzling
rain, and red flowers were sprinkled over the mound of wet dirt topped
by a small white tombstone.
The
Airbus A320 crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday with 162 people on
board. Nine bodies have been recovered so far, including two on
Thursday. Remains are being sent initially to Pangkalan Bun, the closest
town on Borneo island, before being transported to Surabaya,
Indonesia's second-largest city, where Flight 8501 had taken off.
In
the thick of Indonesia's rainy season, the weather has frequently
prevented helicopters and divers from operating while strong sea
currents have kept debris moving.
Singapore's navy sent an
unmanned underwater vehicle capable of surveying the seabed to try to
pinpoint the wreckage and the all-important "black boxes" — flight data
and cockpit voice recorders. More than 50 ships, mostly from Indonesia,
were scouring the area with high-tech detection equipment. Aircraft with
metal detectors also were deployed.
We
are "focusing on finding the body of the plane," Indonesia air force
spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters. "There was
something like a dark shadow once seen from a plane, but it cannot yet
be proven as wreckage."
Sonar images have identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane.
"It's
possible the bodies are in the fuselage," said Vice Air Marshal
Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator in Pangkalan Bun. "So
it's a race now against time and weather."
The longer the search takes, the more corpses will decompose and debris scatter.
Aviation expert Geoffrey
Thomas in Australia said there's a good chance the plane hit the water
largely intact, and that many passengers remain inside it.
He
added that bodies recovered so far would have come out with a breach in
the fuselage. "But most passengers still should have had their seat
belts on, particularly as the plane was going into weather. The captain
would have still had the seat belt sign on."
It is unclear what
brought the plane down about halfway into its two-hour flight from
Surabaya to Singapore. The jet's last communication indicated the pilots
were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above
threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four
minutes later, the airliner disappeared from the radar without issuing a
distress signal.The black boxes hold data that will help investigators determine the cause of the crash but have yet to be recovered. Items found so far include a life jacket, an emergency exit door, an inflatable slide, children's shoes, a blue suitcase and backpacks filled with food.
Relatives have given blood for DNA tests and submitted photos of their loved ones, along with identifying information such as tattoos or birthmarks that could help make the process easier.
The long wait, with its
starts and stops, has been frustrating for Sugiarti. Her 40-year-old
sister, Susiyah, was a nanny traveling to Singapore for a vacation with
her employers and their 2-year-old daughter.
"I
hope that they can find her body soon. I feel sorry for my sister
because it has already been five days," she told reporters at a crisis
center set up at a Surabaya police station. "I am trying very hard to be
patient."
Nearly all the
passengers were Indonesian, and many were Christians of Chinese descent.
The country is predominantly Muslim, but sizeable pockets of people of
other faiths are found throughout the sprawling archipelago.
___
McDowell
reported from Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia. Associated Press writers Niniek
Karmini, Ali Kotarumalos and Margie Mason in Jakarta contributed to
this report.
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