Bad weather halts recovery of bodies from AirAsia flight

Stormy weather forced Indonesian rescuers Dec. 31 to suspend their search for the bodies of 162 people aboard an ill-fated AirAsia plane, as investigators started trying to piece together why the flight plunged into the sea.

After two days of scouring the Java Sea for signs of the missing aircraft, search teams on Dec. 30 began recovering debris and bodies, sending relatives waiting anxiously for news into distraught outpourings of emotion.

Although officials promised another massive search on Dec. 30, storms forced them to halt the hunt for the remaining bodies and the rest of the plane, which had been travelling from Indonesia's second biggest city Surabaya to Singapore when it crashed.

"We are experiencing bad weather now. Rains and winds prevented us from resuming the search operation this morning," air force rescue coordinator S.B. Supriyadi told AFP.

National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told a press conference Dec.30 that six bodies had now been recovered, including a woman in crew uniform.

"As soon as the weather is clear, the bodies will be brought to Pangkalan Bun," the town with the nearest airstrip to the crash site, said Soelistyo.

Supriyadi said that hundreds of people from the military, police and national rescue agency were on standby waiting for clear weather in Pangkalan Bun.

The plane crashed into the Java Sea southwest of the island of Borneo, with debris including an exit door and a blue suitcase so far retrieved from the area.

During Tuesday's searches, an air force plane saw a "shadow" on the seabed believed to be that of the missing flight, where all search efforts were now being concentrated, Soelistyo said.

Investigators were also looking...