Photo: AFP/Bay Ismoyo

Update 12/31/2014 09:56 WIB: Three more bodies found from Air Asia QZ8501, bringing total to six, not 40

Update 17:57 WIB: Indonesian naval ship recovers more than 40 bodies from Air Asia QZ8501

Update 16:14 WIB: Search plane spots ‘shadow’ on seabed believed to be AirAsia QZ8501

Update 16:05 WIB: Three bodies from Air Asia QZ8501 to be taken on board Indonesian Naval Ship

Update 15:50 WIB:

Update 15:02 WIB: Bodies found in sea search for Air Asia QZ8501

BREAKING: Indonesian helicopters have spotted 3-6 bodies floating at sea, says MetroTV #QZ8501 — TODAY (@TODAYonline) December 30, 2014 Body bags being brought to pangkal bun by search and rescue team and Air Force #QZ8501 pic.twitter.com/yDEWi74D9T — Sumisha Naidu (@sumishanaidu) December 30, 2014

Update 14:33 WIB: Indonesian Transport Ministry confirms plane debris belongs to Air Asia QZ8501

Update 14:12 WIB: Rescue pilot claims to see floating body and suitcase in Air Asia QZ8501 search area



Items resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other objects were spotted in the sea during an aerial search Tuesday for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, Indonesian officials said.

An AFP photographer on the search flight that spotted the possible debris said he had seen objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes.

Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto told reporters: “We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph.”

“The position is 10 kilometres (six miles) from the location the plane was last captured by radar,” he said.

Photo taken from an Indonesian aircraft over the Java Sea shows possible plane debris from the missing AirAsia flight pic.twitter.com/vh7mvBqdgZ — Agence France-Presse (@AFP) December 30, 2014

Putranto displayed 10 photos of objects resembling a plane door, emergency slide, and a square box-like object.

“It is not really clear… it could be the wall of the plane or the door of the plane,” he said.

“Let’s pray that those objects are what we are really trying to find,” he said in Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared Sunday morning over the Java Sea with 162 people on board.

The search is focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, across from Kalimantan.

Story: AFP



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