Pangkalan Bun (Indonesia):
A Singaporean navy ship on Wednesday located the main body of the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea late last month, believed to be the resting place of most of the 162 victims.
Flight QZ8501 crashed on December 28 in stormy weather during a short, routine flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
The discovery of the fuselage is the latest boost in a slow-moving search operation often hampered by bad weather. It followed the recovery this week of both the plane's black boxes, which contain vital information to determine what caused the crash.
"The MV Swift Rescue has located the fuselage of the AirAsia plane in the Java Sea," said Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen in a Facebook post, adding that Indonesian search and rescue officials had been informed.
"The accident is a tragic event resulting in the loss of many lives. I hope that with the fuselage located, some form of closure can come to the families of the victims to ease their grief."
His post was accompanied by underwater photos of what appeared to the fuselage. The words "now" and "everyone" are visible, apparently from AirAsia's motto "Now Everyone Can Fly" painted on the plane's exterior.
Indonesia's national search and rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo confirmed that the fuselage had been found by the Singaporean ship and said divers would head to the wreckage on Thursday.
"It's dark today, its not possible to dive, so we will dive tomorrow. The main focus is to find victims in the fuselage," he said. "If it's difficult we will lift (the fuselage) up either in part or in whole."