Bodies of 29 Victims of AirAsia Crash Identified: DVI

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) -- The East Java police's Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) unit has already identified the corpses of 29 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 Saturday, which marks day 14 of the ongoing search and rescue operation, adding that two of the bodies have been identified as those of Susandhini Liman (38) and Justin Giovanni (9). "We have reported it to the airline and handed over the bodies to their families for burial," Budiyono stated. While it has completed the identification of 29 victims, the RS Bhayangkara Hospital still needs to identify the bodies of 19 other victims. 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. (*) Reporting by Fiqih Arfani