First identified victim from AirAsia crash buried

The grave marker of Hayati Lutfiah Hamid, a passenger of AirAsia flight QZ8501, is pictured at a cemetery in Surabaya. – Reuters pic, January 2, 2015.

A drizzle add to the sombre mood as the first identified victim of AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501, Hayati Lutfiah Hamid, 39, was buried next to her father-in-law's grave at the Desa Sawo Tratap Muslim Cemetery in Sidoarjo near Surabaya at 5.35pm yesterday, reported Bernama.

About 150 people, including family members and friends, paid their last respects to Hayati who was among 162 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A320-200 flight that crashed in the Java Sea while on its way to Singapore from Surabaya on Sunday morning.

The identity of Hayati, an Indonesian, was determined after a post-mortem was carried out. She was identified by her thumb print, personal belongings, a necklace with her name on it and her identity card.

Hayati's remains was among six bodies recovered by the search and rescue team and taken to the Bhayangkara Hospital for post-mortem and identification process, Bernama reported.

Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency chief F. Henry Bambang Soelistyo told reporters during a press conference in Jakarta that thus far, nine bodies had been recovered, the Bernama report said.

He said of the nine bodies recovered, six bodies were taken to the Bhayangkara Hospital (including Hayati's body), two were at Pangkalan Bun, Kalimantan, and one was found by KD Lekir (Royal Malaysian Navy).

Royal Malaysian Navy chief Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar in his Twitter account said the body of a man found by KD Lekir would be handed over to the Indonesian
authorities today.

On board AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, a Singaporean, a Malaysian, a Briton and a French national who was the co-pilot.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that France's crash investigation agency's specialist black box search team and equipment would arrive today at the search area.

France's BEA crash investigation agency assists in the investigation of any air crash involving an Airbus aircraft because the company is France-based.

Yesterday, heavy seas had stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of the AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo and an aviation official had said it could be a week before the black box flight recorders were likely to be found.

"During the morning of January 2, local time, a ship will be taking the investigators to the search area, with detection equipment including hydrophones, in order to try to locate the acoustic beacons from the two flight recorders," BEA said in a statement.

The plane was travelling at 32,000 feet (9,753 metres) and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid bad weather. When air traffic controllers granted permission for a rise to 34,000 feet a few minutes later, they received no response. – Agencies, January 2, 2015.