REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Two Russian planes have arrived to help with search for the victims of AirAsia QZ8501 that crashed in the Java Sea earlier this week.
"Today we received Russia's assistance in the form of two planes," chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Rear Marshal F Henry Bambang Soelistyo said here on Friday (2/1).
He noted that one of the planes can land on water with minimal waves.
"This plane is very useful for evacuation purposes," he added.
A plane from Japan is also on its way from Singapore, he revealed.
Meanwhile on Friday, Basarnas extended the search area to 13,500 miles of which 1,575 miles is a priority area where 30 bodies have so far been found.
Three ships with underwater detection capabilities have been deployed to additional areas, namely KM Baruna Jaya, KM Geo Survey, and RSS Persistence belonging to Singapore.
He remarked that the new areas have been added based on calculations by an expert team and the evaluation of findings in the field so far.
According to Soelistyo, five aircraft, eight helicopters, and 22 ships, including eight units from Singapore, four from Malaysia, and one from the US, are part of the search operation.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 carrying 162 passengers, including seven crew members, lost contact with air traffic control while flying above the Java Sea from Surabaya in East Java to Singapore Sunday morning.
The plane is believed to have crashed in the sea and searches have been underway to find the fuselage and black boxes of the plane to determine the real cause of the incident.
Until Friday evening, a total of 30 bodies have been found in addition to debris.
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