Indonesian divers retrieve 6 more bodies from AirAsia crash

Search and retrieval teams recover more bodies from the ill-fated AirAsia QZ8501 from the Java Sea (screenshot from AP footage)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian divers discovered six more bodies Tuesday from the wreckage of the crashed AirAsia plane, bringing to 90 the total number bodies retrieved from the jetliner.

AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed into the Java Sea on Dec. 28 with 162 people on board while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, to Singapore.

The National Search and Rescue Agency and traditional divers are continuing the search after the Indonesian navy halted its own efforts last week due to the difficulty of lifting the fuselage from the water.

Agency spokesman Jusuf Latif said that the discoveries brought to 90 the total bodies retrieved from the crash.

Some of the bodies were found floating off Sulawesi island, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) east of the crash scene one month after the crash.

Authorities believe many of the other bodies are still inside the fuselage and other big pieces of wreckage in the area, including the cockpit, which may contain the bodies of the pilot and co-pilot. Authorities have reported the cockpit wreckage to be about 500 meters (yards) from the main body of the Airbus A320.

Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, the operation chief of the rescue agency, said 13 bodies were discovered by traditional divers on Monday and Tuesday from inside and around the fuselage which is at a depth of 30 meters (100 feet) on the seafloor.