Indonesian president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
AirAsia Emergency Call Centre +603-2179 5959
SURABAYA: Indonesian president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said the recovery of victims' remains and debris will remain the top-most priority of the search and rescue operations team.
The team is currently out at sea near the Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash site, which has been confirmed as crashed in Indonesian waters.
"We have located the crash site. We will launch major search by air and sea tomorrow (Wednesday)," Jokowi said while addressing the media Tuesday.
Jokowi was in Surabaya, where various Indonesian agencies are working to recover the remains of the Airbus aircraft which was on its way to Singapore from Surabaya when it went missing with 162 people on board, including children and infants.
"We will focus on recovery of passengers and crew members," Jokowi said, adding that bad weather conditions are hampering the search operations at the moment.
Jokowi also thanked neighbouring countries including Singapore, Malaysia and Australia for their assistance in tracing the missing plane and recovering debris.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States have been involved in the search. - The Straits Times/ANN
