AirAsia QZ8501: Only three bodies recovered, not 40, says search agency chief

Bambang Soelistyo (right), the Head of the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), speaks during a news conference updating journalists about the search and rescue operation for the missing AirAasia plane, in Jakarta, Indonesia, 30 December 2014. - EPA

JAKARTA: Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief said Tuesday that just three bodies had been recovered so far in the search for the Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 plane which crashed in the Java Sea, after another official said 40 had been found.

"Today (Tuesday) we evacuated three bodies and they are now in the warship Bung Tomo," F.H. Bambang Soelistyo told a news conference in Jakarta, adding that they were two females and one male.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir told AFP earlier that according to naval radio, a warship had recovered more than 40 bodies from the sea, but he later said that the report was a miscommunication by his staff.

The Airbus A320-200 carrying 162 people crashed Sunday en route from Surabaya to Singapore, with wreckage recovered near its last known location. - AFP

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