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Rescuers resume search for AirAsia jet crash victims in Java Sea

Key effort will be focused on the search for fragments of the A320-200 hull that might presumably hold bodies of the crash victims

SINGAPORE, January 14. /TASS/. Rescuers have resumed the search operation to recover fragments of the AirAsia disaster jet that crashed in the Java Sea, the Cannel News Asia television channel said on Wednesday.

Channel News Asia said the number of ships involved in the search operation had decreased. Key effort will be focused on the search for fragments of the A320-200 hull that might presumably hold bodies of the crash victims. By today, rescuers have retrieved only 48 bodies whereas there had been 162 people onboard the ill-fated plane. On Tuesday, Bambang Soelistyo, the chief of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said that the central part of the rescue operation was over but reaffirmed that the search for the bodies of the crash victims would be continued.

Meanwhile, divers on Tuesday recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the AirAsia jet from the floor of the Java Sea. Both flight recorders have already been taken to Jakarta.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed en route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore about 40 minutes after takeoff on December 28, 2014. It disappeared from radar screens while crossing an area near Island Kalimantan /Borneo/. The jet had 162 people aboard. All of them died.