Liputan6.com, Jakarta - Days have progressed since the missing and the discovery of AirAsia QZ8501. The tragedy however, remains Indonesia’s headline and the search and evacuation process have been enhanced to the extent that personnel from various forces along with the needed vessels were being deployed. Unfriendly weather began to strike the area, causing difficulty for the team which led to the postponement of the search and rescue mission until night time where the weather is expected to be a lot friendlier.
As the soldiers deployed were loitering for more desirable and friendly weather, many of them readied themselves to go pray and shalat as soon as they hear Adzan (Muslim Prayer Call) from the speaker of Indonesian War Ship in Banda Aceh.
The Commander of KRI Banda Aceh, Arief Budiman encourages soldiers and individuals from media to pray (shalat) together which will be followed by zikir and other prayers deemed necessary for Muslim in dire situation like this.
"Friends, lets pray together and yasinan, this is the kind routine that we do on a Friday Evening while we are sailing through the ocean," Arief said at KRI Banda Aceh as they sailed around the area of Kumai bay, Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, Thursday (1/1/2015).
That evening, KRI Banda Aceh commanded at least dozens of rescue vessels searching for the last pieces of AirAsia flight QZ8501. The missing airbus A320-200 has been missing since the 28 of December 2014 and hitherto finding the remaining of the aircraft is still the priority for each authority personnel.
Bad Weather Causing Dangerously Volatile Tide
Bad weather has intervened in the AirAsia fifth day evacuation process. The mission to find all the missing pieces belonging to the flight that was bound for Singapore on 28 December 2014 has to be postponed when bad weather, causing big tidal waves, inevitably interfered the process.
Despite the initial pessimism placed upon searching mission, joint Search and Rescue Team under the coordination of Basarnas continues its effort to seek for survivors, or bodies, along with other objects belonging to AirAsia QZ8501. While it is true that bad weather makes it hard for the investigation to be done, the search and rescue team never show any sign of giving up.
Identifying Victims
East Java Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) police team continues its effort on collecting antemortem data from families of AirAsia QZ8501 victims. This is to help them identify victims.
The head of East Java Public Relations of the Regional Police Pol Awi Sutiyono said that up until now his team has already collected 161 antemortem from victims’ families.
"161 antemortem data have been collected, just minus 1 from Rami Emmanuel Plesel (Copilot of AirAsia QZ8501)," Awi said as he gives information during press conference at Antemorten post Regional Police headquarter East Java.
Apart from collecting the 161 antemortem data, he said the DVI team has also collected at least 107 DNA from family members.
""So far we have collected 107 DNA, we only need 55 left," he explained.
With the data not fully collected yet, Awi encourages all involving authorities and families to help hasten the process by yielding needed information as soon as possible.
DVI team has previously been successful in identifying 1 deceased passenger whose name is Hayati Lutfiah Hamid. Hayati has been returned to her family. Meanwhile, at Bhayangkara hospital, there are still 7 other victims unidentified.
The Searching Area
Apart from dominating their agenda on finding the passengers of AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Basarnas also putting a lot of effort on finding the debris or any objects that may belong to the missing aircraft. According to Basarnas Operation Deputy, Tatanf Zainudin, a large number of vessels as well as personnel have all been deployed.
"We have added the number of forces in charge for the rescue mission. The South Korean aircraft has camera which will enable our searching procedure,"Tatang said during press conference at Basarnas office, Jalan Angkasa, Central Jakarta.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 went missing on Sunday 28 December 2014. Its location sof the debris and passengers are gradually discovered. The search and rescue team have successfully collected objects belonging to the aircraft. Various nations participate in the rescue mission. (Akp/Tnt)
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