3 more bodies delivered to AirAsia search center

Parts of AirAsia QZ8501, recovered from the Java Sea, are carried by Indonesian Airforce and Search and Rescue crew members after they were offloaded from a US Navy helicopter at the airport in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, January 5, 2015. Indonesian navy divers took advantage of calmer waters on Monday to resume efforts to identify suspected wreckage from a missing Indonesia AirAsia passenger jet with no signal detected yet from the black box recorders. [Photo/Agencies]

PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia - Three bodies of AirAsia crash victims were delivered to Indonesia's AirAsia search center by a helicopter operated by Indonesian National Search and Rescue agency (BASARNAS) on Monday, making the number of bodies sent to the evacuation command post reached 37.

The Dauphin SA 365 helicopter operated by BASARNAS picked up the bodies found earlier Monday by a Malaysian navy ship. One of those bodies was identified as female, the remaining two have yet to be identified.

Those bodies were rushed to state-run Imanuddin hospital in downtown Pangkalan Bun for brief identification before being transferred to Surabaya.

The command post transported a total of four bodies to Surabaya on Sunday night, three of which found by the United States navy USS Sampson and one from Singapore navy ship Persistence.

As of Sunday, the command post has transferred 34 bodies to Surabaya for further process.

Meanwhile, an official from Indonesia's National Transportation Agency (KNKT) said here on Monday that international teams joining the operation to recover debris and bodies from the crashed AirAsia plane is now racing against time to find black box, voice and flight data recorders of the plane as their battery would use up within 30 days.

"We have to find them quickly, otherwise it would be very difficult to locate those devices," Nurcahyo, a KNKT investigator told Xinhua here.

"We are racing against time as their battery would use up within 30 days. Now we have 21 more days left," he added.

Voice and flight data recorders were devices to record the plane's flight data and conversation of pilot throughout the flight.

He added that the most important thing is to find the tail, the section where the crucial black box voice and flight data recorders are located.

He said that debris already found by the searchers at the moment were not sufficient to conclude the cause of the plane crash.

However, the heavy weather engulfing the crash site has exacerbated efforts to recover bodies and find the black box that should explain why the plane crashed into the sea.

KNKT teams up with experts from Russia, France and Singapore to carry out its mission.

AirAsia QZ8501 crashed in Java Sea near Karimata Strait on Dec 28 after losing contact with the Jakarta Air Traffic Control (ATC).

The plane carrying 162 people onboard was on its flight from Surabaya to Singapore when the crash occurred.

The plane allegedly encountered storm cloud that made it suffered from "engine loss" due to icing phenomenon after entered the storm cloud.

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