The USS Sampson. Photo: Flickr

Indonesian National Search and Rescue (Basarnas) Pangkalan Bun Operations Director First Marshall S.B. Supriyadi said the US Navy battleship USS Sampson found six more bodies from AirAsia flight QZ8501. That brings the total number of bodies recovered to 16 since the plane went missing on Sunday, December 28.

Supriyadi said the newly discovered bodies were found floating in the sea, not far from where QZ8501 was last detected on radar.

“The bodies will be flown here on their (American) helicopter at 11am,” Supriyadi said at Iskandar Airfield in Pangkalan Bun, Central Borneo, as quoted by Tempo today.

Previously today, joint search and rescue forces flew two bodies from an Indonesian Navy ship in the search area to Sultan Imanuddin Hospital in Pangkalan Bun. Before that, eight bodies were flown to Surabaya, where QZ8501 departed from, to be identified by the Disaster Victim Identification Unit of the East Java Regional Police.

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