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Friday, January 2, 2015

QZ8501 Updates (2 Jan 2015)

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AirAsia QZ8501: Female passenger is first victim buried
The first victim of AirAsia Flight QZ8501, found in the Java Sea after the crash on Sunday, has been laid to rest.

Officials earlier identified the remains as belonging to a female passenger called Hayati Lutfiah Hamid.

Ms Hayati, 49, was buried at a ceremony attended by family and friends in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.

The discovery of two bodies on Thursday brings the number recovered to nine. Bad weather has continued to hamper the search for the plane and other victims.

The Airbus A320-200 came down four days ago en route from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board.

No survivors have been found and the cause of the crash remains unknown.

More RSN ships join search and rescue operations
The Singapore Navy's MV Swift Rescue has arrived at the southern coast of Kalimantan, where the missing flight QZ8501 is believed to be located. The vessel will be using a hydrophone to attempt to pick up signals from the plane's black box.

It joins three others - the Formidable-class frigate RSS Supreme, Victory-class missile corvette RSS Valour, and Endurance-class landing ship tank RSS Persistence - to conduct search and rescue operations in the area.

MINDEF says the Bedok-class mine countermeasure vessel RSS Kallang will also reach the search area on Friday (Jan 2).

An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle was also flown to the RSS Persistence on Thursday afternoon. The system will scan the seabed for abnormalities that are metallic and reflective.

Singapore sends 5th navy ship for AirAsia QZ8501 search
A Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) Bedok-class mine countermeasure vessel (MCMV) on Wednesday (Dec 31) was deployed to the search and rescue operation area to hunt for the missing AirAsia QZ8501 plane.

The RSS Kallang has the capability to conduct underwater search operations as it is equipped with underwater sensors and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to search for aircraft debris, the Ministry of Defence said in its press release.

To date, the Singapore Armed Forces has contributed two C-130 aircraft, two Super Puma helicopters and five navy ships.

75 ambulances on standby at Surabaya airport
A total of 75 ambulances are on standby at Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport, to ferry any bodies recovered from the wreckage of AirAsia flight QZ8501.

The search mission is ongoing in the Java Sea off West Kalimantan, after plane debris and bodies were sighted in the Karimata Strait, southwest of Pangkalan Bun, on Tuesday (Dec 30).

Channel NewsAsia understands that any bodies recovered will be flown via Hercules aircraft to Juanda airport – a journey of about 1.5 hours – before being conveyed by ambulance to the local hospital, about 10km away.

Forensics plus the identification of bodies will be conducted at the hospital, according to staff at the hospital.

Relatives of passengers will be ferried to the hospital. Bodies may be sent to the family home thereafter, the hospital staff said.

Of the 162 people on board the flight to Singapore, 155 were Indonesia, with the majority from the departure city of Surabaya.

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