One More Victim of AirAsia QZ8501 Identified

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) -- The Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team identified the body of an AirAsia QZ8501 passenger on Wednesday. Head of the DVI team Senior Commissioner Budiyono said here on Wednesday that the body of the victim, which was labeled B053, was identified as Marianne Claudia Ardhi, an 11-year-old female who was a resident of Surabaya, East Java province. The body was identified by matching primary data with the victim's DNA. The team also used footage from CCTV cameras to identify characteristics of the victim, including what clothes she was wearing during the flight. According to flight data, Ardhi had boarded the ill-fated aircraft with all members of her family, who are still missing. She was heading to Singapore from Surabaya with her father Reggy Ardhi, mother Caroline Harwon Lioe, and two siblings, Michele Clemency Ardhi and Jayden Cruze Ardhi. The DVI team collected the victim's DNA by taking samples from unwashed clothes from her home as her family members have yet to be found. So far, 32 days since AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed, as many as 56 bodies of passengers have been identified, while DVI team is still in the process of identifying the bodies of 14 others. The AirAsia Airbus A320-200 carrying 162 people had gone missing on the morning of December 28 after losing contact with air traffic control on its way from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore. Flight QZ8501 lost contact after the pilot sought permission to climb to 38 thousand feet from 32 thousand feet to avoid stormy weather over the sea 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 Briton, a Malaysian, and the French FO. (*) Reporting by Abdul Malik Ibrahim