Indonesian Rescue Teams Attempt to Raise AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Fuselage

Indonesian divers have begun an operation to raise the wreckage of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 on Saturday; meanwhile, four more bodies have been found.

MOSCOW, January 24 (Sputnik) — Indonesian rescue teams have launched an operation to raise the fuselage of AirAsia flight QZ8501 from the sea bed on Saturday, AFP reports.

Four more bodies have been recovered, bringing the total number of bodies that have been discovered so far to 69.

"We have begun the operation today to lift the main body and we hope we can float it today," the agency quotes S. B. Supriyadi, a rescue agency official, as saying.

The news comes a day after divers were able to enter the main section of the jet for the first time; the passenger plane crashed in the Java Sea in late December.

Difficult weather conditions for the past week however, had stopped rescuers from reaching the main part of the Airbus A320-200 since it was spotted on the seabed by a military vessel earlier this month.

The divers are set to tie floatation bags to the fuselage, AFP cites Rasyid Kacong, the navy official overseeing the lifting operation from onboard the warship Banda Aceh as saying.

The rescue team, however, failed to float the main body of the aircraft during its first attempt, as the ropes snapped off before the fuselage could be brought to the surface.

"We are now trying again and it is in the process," Rasyid Kacong said.

Flight QZ8501 went down on Dec 28 in stormy weather, during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. None of the 162 passengers or flight crew survived.