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THE body of the first passenger from AirAsia Flight 8501 to be identified and returned to her family was buried yesterday as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.
Hayati Lutfiah Hamid’s identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Colonel Budiyono of East Java’s Disaster Victim Identification Unit.
After an imam said a prayer for the deceased, the casket was immediately taken to her village and lowered into a grave, following Muslim obligations that bodies be buried quickly.
Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday with 162 people aboard. Eight bodies have been recovered, including one brought yesterday to Pangkalan Bun, the nearest town to where the wreckage was spotted on Tuesday.
Rainy weather has frequently prevented helicopters and divers from operating while strong sea currents have kept debris moving.
Singapore’s navy sent in an unmanned underwater vehicle capable of surveying the seabed to try to help pinpoint the wreckage and the all-important black boxes — the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
Indonesian equipment in the search includes a minesweeper, a private survey ship that specialises in sea mapping and a vessel that can conduct 3D imaging and detect pings from the black boxes.
Aircraft capable of detecting metal were also deployed.
The seven bodies were recovered off the island of Borneo, about 100 miles from where bodies were first spotted.
Remains are sent initially to Pangkalan Bun before being transported to Surabaya, from where Flight 8501 had taken off.
