Pangkalan: Indonesian officials coming off a helicopter on Borneo island on Tuesday confirmed that they spotted several bodies floating in waters near where the missing AirAsia flight was last seen. Images on local television showed at least one bloated corpse.
The bodies, swollen but intact, were brought to an Indonesian navy ship, National Search and Rescue Director SB Supriyadi told reporters in the nearest town, Pangkalan Bun. The corpses did not have life jackets on.
Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir confirmed the discovery to TVOne, saying several victims were found, but he did not indicate whether they were dead or alive. Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto told MetroTV at least one body was found.
Dozens of ships and planes had on Tuesday joined the effort to find the missing AirAsia jetliner. A device that can detect underwater signals from the aircraft's black boxes was also on its way, more than two days after Flight 8501 vanished from radar.
USS Sampson destroyer of the United States also joined at least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters in the search for the jet carrying 162 people on Tuesday.
A Chinese frigate, Singapore's two underwater beacon detectors have also been deployed to detect pings from the plane's all-important cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Malaysia, Australia and Thailand also are involved in the search.
The plane vanished Sunday halfway into what should have been a two-hour hop from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Officials saw little reason to believe the flight met anything but a grim fate.
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