SURABAYA, Dec 31 (AFP): Soldiers acting as pall bearers Wednesday carried coffins containing the first two bodies from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 into Surabaya airport from where the ill-fated plane departed, as sombre relatives gave their DNA to help identify loved ones.
The bodies were taken from an air force plane to a military ambulance to be transported to a hospital for examination and identification-but many exhausted families were left waiting for news as bad weather hampered search efforts.
Officials had hoped to recover most of the bodies but rough conditions made it difficult for helicopters to fly over the area in the Java Sea where several corpses and debris from the ill-fated Airbus A320-200 were found a day earlier.
In Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya, where the plane had departed for Singapore early on Sunday, drained and emotional relatives of the 162 people on board gathered at a crisis centre to hand over documents and medical records.
Among them was Hadi Widjaja, 60, who was preparing a Muslim funeral for his son Andreas and daughter-in-law Enny Wahyuni.
"I am anxious to know if the rescuers have found their bodies. The president has said that they will do the best they can to find them," Widjaja told AFP.
"But if they really cannot find them, I will scatter flowers in the sea here as a way to say goodbye."
Police in Surabaya said they had taken DNA from 30 immediate family members to assist with the identification of bodies, which is set to take place at a hospital in Surabaya. Two of the recovered bodies were being flown there on Wednesday afternoon.
Storms delayed the start of operations on Wednesday and helicopters were later forced to return to the base in Pangkalan Bun, the town with the nearest airstrip to the crash site.
First AirAsia bodies arrive
FE Team | Published: January 01, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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