10 more bodies from crashed AirAsia plane arrives at East Java hospital

Search and Rescue (SAR) personnel move bodies retrieved from scene of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Indonesian Navy helicopter at Iskandar Air Base in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Jan. 3, 2015. Rescuers have discovered two big objects considered to be parts of the crashed AirAsia plane at sea bed, chief of the rescue team said Saturday. (Xinhua/Veri Sanovri)

Another 10 bodies retrieved from scene of the AirAsia plane crash were brought to the Police Hospital Bhayangkara in Surabaya, the provincial capital of East Java for identification, police said here on Saturday. [Special coverage]

With the arrival, the total number of bodies sent to the hospital rose to 18, with 4 of them have been successfully identified and handed to their families and relatives, Awi Setiyono, provincial police spokesman said.

"Ten more bodies have arrived here, including five women, four man and one child," he said at the hospital.

So far, at least 30 bodies have been pulled out from Indonesian waters where the ill-fated Singapore-bound AirAsia QZ8501 flight carrying 155 passengers and seven crews crashed on Sunday.

Meanwhile, two Indonesian navy helicopters have brought the remaining eight bodies of the total 30 corpses to a state-run hospital nearby for preliminary identification process. They would also be brought to Surabaya later on for further identification.

SB Supriyadi, operation and training director of Indonesian Forces and National Search and Rescue Agency told Xinhua that a United States navy vessel is on its way to the crash site, bringing logistics needed for carrying the bodies.

Supriyadi added that Russia has sent two planes, which one of them is an amphibian plane, to partake in the search operation. He said that Russian team has also brought undersea scanning equipments to locate the plane's black box devices.

"All searching efforts are now focused to find the plane's blackbox and wreckage," Supriyadi said.