AirAsia Crash: DVI team Identifies Two More Bodies

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) - The Disaster Victim Identification team of the East Java Police on Tuesday identified two more bodies of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 that crashed near Pangkalan Bun waters, Central Kalimantan province, seventeen days ago. The bodies, which have been identified, are of a man Oscar Desano (27), who was a resident of Jakarta, and a woman Yuni Astutik (40) from Blitar District of East Java province. "The body labeled B024 has been identified as that of Oscar Desano with the help of the primary identification data that matched his DNA with those of his parents," Head of the East Java Police DVI Team Senior Commissioner Budiyono said here at the Crisis Center of the Police Headquarters on Ahmad Yani Street Tuesday. The identification team also used evidences such as teeth to identify Oscar, who was one of the crew members of the ill-fated airplane. The second body, labelled B039, has been identified as Yuni Astutik, using primary data such as matching her DNA with her children's. "Her identification has been confirmed with the help of secondary data such as gender, age, and height," Budiyono noted, adding that CCTV footages and a description of her attire also helped. On the seventeenth day since the aircraft's crash, 36 bodies have been identified while 12 are being examined by the DVI team. The AirAsia Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people, had gone missing on Sunday morning (Dec. 28) after losing contact with air traffic control on its way from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore. The flight QZ8501 lost contact after the pilot sought the permission to climb to 38 thousand feet from 32 thousand feet to avoid stormy weather over the sea area between Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan. The aircraft carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members took off from 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. Seven foreigners were among the passengers of the missing jet. The foreign nationals comprised three Koreans, a Singaporean, a British, a Malaysian, and the French FO.(*) Reporting by Fiqih Arfani