DHAKA: Indonesian search and rescue officials evacuated one of two bodies from the cockpit of the crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 late on Friday (Feb 6) afternoon.

The pilots' heavily decomposed bodies still had their airline uniforms on and were strapped to their seats. The cockpit was located 20 meters away from the fuselage on the seabed of the Java Sea.

As nightfall approached, authorities temporarily called off evacuating the other body in the cockpit and will resume their recovery on Saturday morning.

Search officials were not able to identify whether the first body that was retrieved from the plane was Pilot Iriyanto or his co-pilot Remy Plesel. The body has been taken aboard the rescue vessel KN Pacitan.

"It is likely the body of the French co-pilot, wearing uniform with three stripes on (the) shoulder," coordinator of the search and rescue effort S B Supriyadi told AFP. A formal confirmation will be given after the Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team finishes identifying the body, which is in poor condition, Supriyadi added.

Indonesian investigators last month said French co-pilot Plesel was flying the plane before it crashed, rather than Captain Iriyanto, an experienced former fighter pilot.

In the past week, authorities were able to find 28 bodies and have extended search operations for another seven days. Underwater currents have brought the bodies and the plane's debris over 980km from the crash site. The search area has been extended to Central, West and South Sulawesi.

Flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather on Dec 28 in the Java Sea during what was supposed to be a short trip from Surabaya to Singapore. Out of 162 people on board, 98 bodies have been found.

Source: channelnewsasia.com

BDST: 1511 HRS, FEB 07, 2015