Families allowed to join search teams
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Indonesian military commander General Moeldoko says he will be willing to accommodate family members of Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 victims to join the search and rescue operations in the Java Sea.
“If they want, we can take them with our Hercules to Pangkalan Bun [central Kalimantan] and from there they can go to the search area with one of our KRI [naval vessels],” Moeldoko said on Monday.
“I believe their participation in the search mission will help reduce the feeling of loss and sadness. If they want to toss flowers into the sea, we can prepare that as well.”
He said he had communicated this idea personally to the family members and relatives of the 162 people on board the Airbus A320-200 plane, which struck the waters off Pangkalan Bun on December 28.
In addition, national police chief General Sutarman vowed that the police’s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team would be able to identify all the bodies of AirAsia passengers and crew.
“Our DVI team is capable of identifying the bodies, no matter how damaged their condition. But of course we will need more time if we do not recover the body as one piece,” Sutarman said, adding that the team might take up to three weeks to identify fully damaged bodies.
He said the DVI team consisted of 260 forensic pathologists including professionals from Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Australia.
