AirAsia QZ8501: Multiple bodies, wreckage recovered in search for missing plane

An Indonesian warship has recovered three bodies from the sea in the search for the AirAsia jet, Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency says.

Earlier in the day, a navy spokesman told the media a warship had retrieved more than 40 bodies but later retracted the statement saying it was a miscommunication by staff.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyon said: "Today we evacuated three bodies and they are now in the warship Bung Tomo".

An Indonesian air force plane spotted items resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other objects in the search for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 earlier in the day.

AirAsia has released a statement confirming the debris found is from flight QZ8501.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said all available ships and helicopters would be deployed to the area where the debris was found.

A major search and rescue effort involving at least 30 ships and 15 aircraft from nine countries has been looking for the aircraft since it vanished early on Sunday morning while carrying 162 people from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The findings mark a major breakthrough on the operation’s third day.

The flight’s carrier, AirAsia Indonesia, an affiliate of the Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia, confirmed in a statement posted on Facebook that the debris belonged to the missing flight.

“I am absolutely devastated,” AirAsia’s chief executive, Tony Fernandes, said, according to the statement. “This is a very difficult moment for all of us at AirAsia as we await further developments of the search and rescue operations but our first priority now is the wellbeing of the family members of those on board QZ8501.”

The Indonesian television station TvOne reportedly broadcast images of a floating body, then apologised for showing the pictures after relatives of passengers in Surabaya saw the images on television and burst into tears.

AFP reported that at least two relatives collapsed and had to be carried out on stretchers. “My heart will be totally crushed if it’s true. I will lose a son,” 60-year-old Dwijanto told the news agency.

The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, arrived in Surabaya after nightfall to meet the families.

Indonesian officials said search and rescue teams spotted the shadow of a plane beneath the water. “God blessed us today,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters, according to AFP. “At 12:50 the air force Hercules found an object described as a shadow at the bottom of the sea in the form of a plane.”

As dusk fell, Indonesian navy spokesperson Manahan Simorangkir said searchers had begun to recover bodies.

Earlier, Tri Wibowo, the co-pilot of one of the planes involved in the search, said he saw “dozens of floating bodies as well as bags and aircraft debris”, according to the Jakarta Post. SB Supriyadi, the director of national search and rescue, told reporters the corpses were not wearing life jackets.

Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto told a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that search vessels had found objects located approximately 10km from the location where the plane was last captured on radar. “We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph,” he said.

Tuesday 30 December 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/30/missing-airasia-flight-qz8501-teams-retrieve-bodies-java-sea

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/30/indonesia-airplane-idUKL3N0UE06220141230

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-30/airasia-qz8501-debris-spotted-is-from-plane-official/5993438

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Norman Atlantic ferry fire: 12 confirmed dead, 41 people unaccounted for as rescue operation wraps up on ferry burning in Adriatic

Two Albanian seamen who took part in the rescue operation for the Norman Atlantic ferry have died from injuries incurred in an accident, raising the death toll from the fire to 12.

The Italian navy said the merchant sailors were on board a tugboat when the cables attaching it to the stricken ferry snapped. It did not provide further details.

Meanwhile, nearly 40 passengers thought to have been on the boat remain unaccounted for, but it is unclear whether that is due to inaccurate manifest lists or whether some of them may have perished unnoticed in the chaotic early stages of the disaster.

Earlier, Italy's defence minister Roberta Pinotti told a news conference that the Italian navy rescued 427 people, bringing the total accounted for to 437.

However, Greek authorities originally announced that 478 passengers and crew were on board when the fire broke out and left the ferry drifting in high seas and treacherous weather off Albania.

But Italian transport minister Maurizio Lupi said it was unclear whether the passenger list released by the Greek authorities was an accurate reflection of who was on board.

He said the ferry had made a stopover on a Greek island before it ran into trouble on Sunday morning.

"There is a embarkation list on which the names of the 427 passengers and 56 crew appear," Mr Lupi said.

"It is up to the departure port to match up their list and the people (rescued).

"That is why we are continuing our (search) effort: we cannot know what the exact number was."

None of the statements made by survivors of the disaster have so far given any indication that as many as 41 passengers may have died.

This morning DFAT confirmed that two Turkish-Australian dual nationals on the ferry were both safe and well and had been offered consular assistance.

Italian navy chief of staff Admiral Giuseppe De Giorgi said military planes were continuing to overfly the area around the ferry checking for bodies.

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi praised the work of the Italian-led rescue effort, which he said had helped avoid a "massacre".

The Italian navy said the Italian captain Argilio Giacomazzi was the last of the crew to leave the ship in a rescue effort that defied high seas and freezing weather in a 36-hour drama.

The Norman Atlantic was sailing from Patros in western Greece to Ancona in Italy carrying passengers and more than 200 vehicles when a fire broke out in the early hours of Sunday.

It was 44 nautical miles from Corfu when fire broke out on the car deck.

"It was hell," Greek opera singer Dimitra Theodossiou said after being evacuated by helicopter.

"It was very cold, terribly cold. Nearby ships sprayed water from their hydrants [to fight the fire] and we were completely wet."

She was treated for a mild case of hypothermia at a hospital in Lecce, Italy, and later released.

Another passenger, Robert Mane, said there was little warning that a fire had broken out, and many people struggled to get into lifeboats.

"We were asleep when the smoke entered out cabins. Flames and smoke were engulfing people from all sides," he said.

"The crew tried to somewhat coordinate the evacuation into the emergency boats, but that proved to be impossible.

"At that stage people were just throwing themselves into the boats. It took me 25 minutes to get into one."

Italian and Greek helicopter crews winched more than 400 people to safety despite gale-force winds and thick smoke.

Bad weather hampered earlier efforts to attach cables to the ferry for towing.

Rough seas and thick fog in the area also led to the collision of two merchant ships, resulting in at least one death.

Italy's coastguard confirmed the first casualty of the disaster when it recovered the body of a man who had thrown himself off the burning ferry.

Officials said most of the passengers were Greek, but the manifest included names from several other countries including Germany, Italy, Austria, Turkey, France and the Netherlands.

The rescue effort involved helicopters and aircraft from the Italian and Greek defence forces along with 10 ships in support roles.

Early in the rescue, seven merchant ships gathered around the ferry to act as a windbreak as firefighting vessels made their way to the scene.

The Ferry recently passed inspection for faulty fire door.

"The tests confirmed that the boat was in full working order," Carlos Visentini said.

He said the company had addressed minor flaws found after checks by Greek authorities in the port of Patras.

"The inspectors did uncover a slight malfunction in one of the fire doors, number 112, situated on bridge number 5 - the one where, according to the information we have so far, the fire developed," he said.

"This was immediately repaired to the satisfaction of the inspectors and therefore the boat was able to continue in service."

The Italian-flagged ferry was chartered by Greek ferry operator Anek Lines. The cause of the fire has still to be determined.

Tuesday 30 December 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-30/norman-atlantic-ferry-rescue-wraps-up/5992308

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Human bones discovered on Gaspé peninsula ‘witnesses to a tragic event’

The human bones arrived in a cardboard box and the investigators scrutinized them one by one: About a dozen long bones, more than 25 vertebrae, pieces of a jawbone.

Laid out on a long, rectangular table, the remains held a tale of human tragedy. The investigators – anthropologists working for Parks Canada – began to piece that tale together, helping bring some resolution to a mystery that straddles time and two continents.

The partial skeletons were discovered near the surface of a stony beach on Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula three years ago. Now, officials have determined they are those of three children from Europe who showed signs of malnutrition. They believe they were almost certainly Irish migrants who died in a 19th-century shipwreck in Canadian waters as they fled poverty in search of a better life.

“They are witnesses to a tragic event,” said Pierre Cloutier, an archeologist at Parks Canada. “You can’t have a more tangible witness to tragedy than human remains.”

The findings are poignant for Georges Kavanagh, a resident of Gaspé who traces his ancestors to some of the victims and survivors of the shipwreck. He has been carefully following the story of the bones since they were found. He wants to ensure they get a proper reburial.

“I have a link to these people – I almost consider them my family,” Mr. Kavanagh said. “Who wouldn’t want their ancestors to get a peaceful rest?”

The quest to trace the origins of the bones began in 2011.

A passerby discovered the remains on the shoreline of Cap-des-Rosiers, within the boundaries of the Forillon National Park, 700 kilometres northeast of Quebec City. Erosion had exposed them to the elements and disturbed the resting place of three children who likely had little rest in their short lives.

Officials believe the three were probably victims of the wreck of the Carricks, one of the many “coffin ships” that crossed the Atlantic carrying Irish migrants fleeing famine in their homeland. The Carricks was heading to Quebec City, but foundered in a violent storm off Cap-des-Rosiers in 1847.

Reports of the death toll vary, but about 100 bodies washed ashore after the storm and were buried in a mass grave; survivors were taken in by local families. Montreal’s St. Patrick’s parish later erected a stone marker at the site commemorating the tragedy, which stands only 40 yards from where the children’s skeletal remains were found.

Parks Canada sent the bones for analysis to Quebec’s forensics lab in Montreal, then they were taken to the University of Montreal, where anthropologist Isabelle Ribot and graduate student Rémi Toupin began to examine them in detective-like detail.

The length of the bones and other clues indicated the victims were children – two aged between 7 and 9, the other 11 or 12. A curve in one bone pointed to malnutrition consistent with rickets, a condition caused by vitamin D deficiency.

Mr. Toupin scraped off a bit of tooth enamel for a chemical analysis. The results point to a plant-based diet found in Europe that could have included potatoes, a staple in Ireland before the catastrophic blight caused a famine that killed swaths of the population and sent legions into exile.

A clue found on the site offered a glimpse of the victims’ history: An unvarnished, nickel-sized, dark-brown wooden button. It was traced to 19th-century Europe.

“In archeology, we are there to protect memory … and give people an identity and say who they were,” Mr. Toupin said. “We can’t always reach absolute conclusions, but it’s always our goal to go as far as possible in identifying people.”

It would take carbon dating and DNA testing to be sure the victims were aboard the Carricks. Parks Canada, however, says it will not take the analysis any further.

The Carricks was among hundreds of migrant ships bound for the port of Quebec City in 1847, the darkest year of the famine in Ireland. The voyage was perilous for the desperate travellers, who were often weakened by hunger and disease. Nearly 5,300 of those fleeing died on their way to Canada.

The bones from Cap-des-Rosiers are to be repatriated to the Gaspé for reburial next year. Mr. Kavanagh would like to find the precise spot of the common grave and move it, if need be, to prevent other human remains from being disturbed by erosion.

“I want them to be placed in a spot,” Mr. Kavanagh said from his home, “where they can remain for centuries and centuries.”

Tuesday 30 December 2014

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/human-bones-discovered-on-gaspe-peninsula-witnesses-to-a-tragic-event/article22234819/

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Police to conduct DNA tests to identify Bhiwandi fire victims

The Narpoli police will carry out DNA tests to identify the eight workers who died in the Bhiwandi warehouse blaze on Saturday.

Early Saturday morning in Bhiwandi, a city in the Indian state of Maharashtra some 20 kilometres north-east of Mumbai, a massive fire broke out on the premises of a timber mart. The fire reportedly started in one timber godown and spread to three others. Dozens of fire-fighters managed to bring the inferno under control, but not before it had taken eight lives and injured three others. The bodies, charred beyond recognition, will be identified via DNA testing.

The charred bodies of the deceased who worked in two warehouses located close to each other in the Rahnal area have been kept at the IGM hospital morgue in Bhiwandi.

The two warehouses where the fire broke were used to stock timber and plastic. Primary probe in the incident revealed that the warehouses were operating without any legal permits. It is mandatory for warehouses stocking such inflamable goods to have fire safety equipments, which was not followed in this case.

The fire brigade received a call of the fire at around 2.57 AM and managed to put it out by 7 AM, after four-long-hours, using three fire engines and water from a nearby well. Cooling operations were underway till 11.30 AM. According to officials, the 100 by 50 square meter godown was used to build wooden crates and had workers living inside, judging by the charred clothes and utensils.

“Eight people were charred and we managed to rescue three who had sustained severe burns and have taken them to Indira Gandhi hospital. There are rumours of two more trapped inside, we haven’t been able to know for sure. If they are still trapped, which is highly unlikely, they would not have survived,” said a fire official at the site.

Tuesday 30 December 2014

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/others/Police-to-conduct-DNA-tests-to-identify-Bhiwandi-fire-victims/articleshow/45672488.cms

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/8-killed-in-bhiwandi-fire-accident-at-timbre-mart/

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