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View all search resultsKorea, UAE help identify bodies of AirAsia victims
Forensic experts from South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have joined other international experts, including from Australia and Singapore, in helping to identify victims of AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into Karimata Strait waters while en route from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec
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orensic experts from South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have joined other international experts, including from Australia and Singapore, in helping to identify victims of AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into Karimata Strait waters while en route from Surabaya to Singapore on Dec.28.
'Five forensic and identification experts from the UAE and a DNA expert from South Korea have been working with 229 other experts to identify the victims' bodies since 9 a.m. today,' the National Police's Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) director Sr.Comr.Anton Casilani told journalists at the DVI post at the East Java Police headquarters in Surabaya, Tuesday.
He said an identification team from Malaysia was also expected to arrive in Surabaya on Wednesday.
Ten Singaporean experts and 14 Australian experts have also been dispatched to assist in the identification process.
'The joint identification team comprising experts from several countries will be divided into two groups. The first group consists of experts responsible for postmortem identification tasks. The second group comprises experts assigned to reconcile or integrate antemortem and postmortem data. Several DNA experts are also part of the second group,' said Anton.
He further explained that to date, the DVI team had collected DNA samples of 162 passengers and crew members on board the flight, 36 of which still needed to be reviewed further. To that end, the team was collecting DNA samples from the families of the victims.
'Up till now, the DVI team has recovered the bodies of 37 AirAsia victims, of which 13 have been identified and handed over to their families,' said Anton.
Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Indroyono Soesilo said Indonesia had mobilized its sophisticated technologies, including a remote operated vehicle (ROV), to search for the crucial black box flight recorders from the missing aircraft.
'The ROV will carry out a search operation that will reach the bottom of the sea because it would be difficult for divers to carry out underwater search operations on account of the mud at the bottom of the [Karimata Strait] waters,' he said in Surabaya on Monday.
Indroyono said the underwater search operation would be assisted by a pinger locater on research vessel KR Baruna Jaya I belonging to the Assessment and Application of Technology Agency BPPT), which has been working with the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) over the last several days.
'Baruna Jaya I is equipped with technologically advanced equipment, such as a pinger locator and magnetometer to detect signals transmitted from the black box,' said Indroyono. (ebf)(+++)
