Indonesia lauds China For Assistance In QZ8501 Search Operations

Beijing, China, Jan 28 (Antara) - The Indonesian government has lauded the Chinese government for sending ships to search the AirAsia QZ8501 flight's fuselage and providing assistance to retrieve the victims in Karimata Strait of South Kalimantan Province. Coordinating Minister for Economics Sofyan Djalil praised the Chinese government's efforts during his meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, here on Tuesday, (Jan. 27). Minister Sofyan also expressed appreciation to the China State Council officer Yang Jiechi during his speech at the first Indonesia-China bilateral economic meeting on Monday evening, (Jan. 26). The Chinese government deployed the rescue vessel Nan-hai-jiu 101, which assisted the Indonesian government in searching for the black box of QZ8501. Seven experts traveled the route aboard the Nan-hai-jiu 101 vessel, which also had several equipment required for underwater search operations. The rescue vessel Nan-hai-jiu 115 was also on standby in the waters off Yongxing Islands. The AirAsia flight QZ8501 disappeared on December 28, en route from Surabaya in East Java to Singapore, with 162 people on board. The passengers comprised 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, a Briton, a Singaporean, a French, and a Malaysian national. To date, the Indonesian SAR Agency has retrieved 70 bodies of the QZ8501 passengers, and the Disaster Victim Identification team has identified 55 of the total casualties. The SAR team has also found the Voice Cockpit Recorder and Flight Data Recorder as the main parts of the QZ8501 black box. The search operations are being coordinated by the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) and involve the military, police, and the Transportation Ministry, besides teams from several foreign countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Japan, China, South Korea, India, and Russia.