Rescuers to lift tail, retrieve more bodies in crashed AirAsia jet

JAKARTA, Jan. 9 (NsNewsWire) — Indonesia’s rescue chief said on Thursday his team will raise the tail of the ill-fated AirAsia QZ8501 flight plane out of water on Friday to retrieve the black box, while three more bodies were recovered on Thursday.

The AirAsia Airbus A320-200 vanished from radar screens on Dec. 28 en route from Indonesia’s second-largest city Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.

Bambang Soelistyo, head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency told a press conference that the tail where the black box is attached will be lifted by floating balloons or crane on Friday if the weather is favorable.

Sonar and divers located the tail in the secondary search area on Wednesday, lying upside down and partly buried in the mud 34 meter underwater