Indonesian Army Halts Search for AirAsia Plane

The Indonesian army has concluded its search operation for the wreckage of the crashed AirAsia plane and the bodies of the remaining victims; the main body of the aircraft has not yet been retrieved from the crash site, and the bodies of dozens of its passengers are still missing. Admiral Widodo, the military official in charge of the search operation, apologized to the victims' families on February 26 for not being able to find all the bodies. This decision, according to Indonesian officials, was made after four days of unsuccessful attempts to lift the main body of the aircraft from the sea. A total of 70 bodies have been found over the past month. There were 162 people aboard the Airbus that crashed into the sea on December 28 of last year, three days before the end of the year. Admiral Widodo stated that the priority for searchers was to find the bodies of the passengers; 'and we have found nothing in the past two days.' Earlier, the black box of the aircraft, which contains the conversations in the cockpit and aids in investigating the causes of aviation accidents, was found in the Java Sea. The flight data recorder (FDR) was retrieved from the water on January 12, and investigators are currently analyzing the findings with consultation from Airbus. Despite the Indonesian army ending its search operation, the country's search and rescue organization states that they will continue their efforts to find the remaining bodies and retrieve the cockpit or the main body of the aircraft from the water. The cockpit is located 500 meters from the main body in the Java Sea, and searchers suspect that the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot are still there.