T

he search for and identification of victims of the ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501, which crashed into the Karimata Strait off Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, on Dec. 28, 2014, continue as a total of 72 bodies have been identified out of the 100 that have been found.

The National Police'€™s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team has so far managed to identify 72 of the bodies of victims found by the joint search team led by National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

According to the AirAsia Indonesia statement, as quoted by Antara news agency on Sunday, a total 21 bodies were undergoing the identification process while seven more bodies were on their way to the Bhayangkara Hospital in Surabaya.

The search and recovery efforts continued to be carried out in the Karimata Strait and the Java Sea to find more bodies, as well as in the waters off Sulawesi Island.

The Basarnas in Makassar, South Sulawesi, has expanded its search area to a number of locations in Central and West Sulawesi.

'€œWe are focusing on seven locations to look for bodies and debris, expanding the search up to Central and West Sulawesi,'€ the search agency local chapter head Deden Ridwansyah said Saturday.

According to Deden, the seven locations were in the waters off Palu city in Central Sulawesi, by the Topoyo, Mamuju, Majene and Polewali Mandar regencies in West Sulawesi and off the Pinrang and Barru regencies in South Sulawesi

'€œWe are also receiving help from local fishermen, local disaster mitigation agency officers and the police for combing the coastal areas of the locations,'€ he said.

Deden said the search, which has lasted for more than a month, would continue for an indefinite period.

'€œWe have yet to receive orders to stop the search. We don'€™t know for sure when the search would end,'€ he said.

A total of eight bodies, suspected to be those of the AirAsia victims, had been found in Sulawesi waters, located around 1,000 kilometers from the crash site. Six of the bodies were found in Majene and two in Pinrang.

Earlier on Saturday, three bodies were found at the bottom of the Java Sea. Basarnas confirmed that one of four bodies found on Friday was those of a pilot after a team of divers located the cockpit of the crashed plane.

Due to the condition of the remains, Basarnas has not yet been able to determine whether the body is that of the flight'€™s pilot Capt. Iriyanto or his co-pilot, Frenchman Remi Plesel.

The dive team planned to remove the remains of the other pilot, which were still trapped in the cockpit located some 20 meters from the main section of the crashed aircraft.

The captain of the flight was registered as Iriyanto, but according to reports from the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT), the aircraft was being flown by Plesel, the first officer, at the time of the crash.

The Airbus A320-200 crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia'€™s second-largest city, to Singapore. All 162 people on board were killed.

Of the total victims, 155 were Indonesians, including the pilot. The victims also included the French co-pilot, three South Koreans, a Brit, a Singaporean and a Malaysian.

In its findings, the KNKT said co-pilot Plesel was in control of the aircraft before it rapidly climbed and then stalled, while Capt. Iriyanto, an experienced former fighter pilot, was serving in a monitoring role at the time of the crash.

No cause for the crash has been determined, but officials have said that weather likely played a role.