Much larger parts of crashed AirAsia flight found

Rescuers have found another two objects in much larger size and they are believed to be parts of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501, an Indonesia official said here Saturday. [Special coverage]

Search and rescue agency chief Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo said that the two subjects, with one in 18 meters long, 5.4 meters wide and 2.2 meters high and the other in 12.4 meters long, 0.6 meter wide and 0.5 meter high, were discovered respectively at 13: 30 p.m. Jakarta time and 14:24 p.m. Jakarta time on Saturday.

Two large objects were found earlier, with one in size of 9.4 meters long, 4.8 meters wide and 0.4 meter high, and the other in the size of 7.2 meters long, 0.9 meter wide and 0.5 meter high. "All those four objects were found in the area prioritized to be searched," he told a press conference at the agency's headquarters here. Soelistyo added that 3 other objects were also discovered during the search operation on Saturday.

The priorities of the next step of the operation are search for the larger parts of the plane, recovery of corpses and search for the black boxes. "My duty is to find larger parts of the plane because there is a presumption that many bodies are trapped in it. Beside, search for black boxes, they are our priorities of conducting diving," said the official.

Recovery of bodies is also prioritized, he said.

So far 30 bodies have been recovered by the search and rescue team.

A total of 60 vessels, 8 planes and 4 helicopters have been deployed for the search and rescue operation.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed on Sunday morning on its way to Singapore from Indonesia's city of Surabaya.