Bodies and Debris Found in Search for AirAsia Plane, Rescue Teams Say

Surabaya, Indonesia: Indonesian rescue teams said Tuesday that they had found bodies and what appeared to be debris from the AirAsia plane that vanished shortly after taking off from the airport here Sunday.

Djoko Murjatmodjo, a senior official with Indonesia's Transportation Ministry, confirmed that the debris was from Flight 8501, which was carrying 162 people when it disappeared.

"We've confirmed the wreckage was from the body of the plane," he said Tuesday in Jakarta, the capital.

Members of search teams told the Indonesian news media that they had spotted what appeared to be suitcases, life vests and aircraft debris. Indonesian television showed a rescuer descending from a helicopter toward a corpse floating in the sea. The bodies shown on television were not wearing life jackets.

The bodies and debris were found in the Karimata Strait off the coast of Borneo. Search teams also spotted what appeared to be a larger piece of the fuselage of the Airbus A320-200, which was operated by the Indonesian affiliate of AirAsia.

"My heart is .. filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501," Tony Fernandes, the founder of AirAsia, wrote in a Twitter message soon after the debris was discovered. "On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am."

Earlier Tuesday, the Indonesian authorities had announced an expanded search area, suggesting that they had few leads as to the whereabouts of the plane, which vanished Sunday morning, about 40 minutes after leaving the Indonesian city of Surabaya bound for Singapore.

"The area we are searching is huge," Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, said in a briefing. The search area, including parts of Borneo and smaller islands in the Java Sea, was around 60,000 square miles, the authorities said.

A U.S. warship had been dispatched to join the search for the missing jet, and Bambang said the Indonesian government had also accepted offers from South Korea and China to help in the search.

The Java Sea, which separates the islands of Borneo and Java, is relatively shallow - around 160 feet at its deepest point - but monsoon conditions were clouding the waters, rescuers said.

Indonesian meteorologists described recovery efforts as a race against time because foul weather - heavy rains, choppy seas and higher winds - was predicted from Friday onward in the search area.