Surabaya, January 6 – Relatives of Air Asia Flight 8501 crash victims sought strength in prayer, one week after the disaster killed all 162 people on board, as rough weather again prevented searchers from reaching a large object on the ocean floor believed to be the plane’s fuselage.
Emotionally exhausted family members sang and cried at a tiny chapel in Surabaya, the city where Flight 8501 departed from December 28. The Rev Philip Mantofa, who heads the congregation at Mawar Sharon Church — where more than a quarter of the victims were members — urged those gathered to find comfort in their faith.
“If God has called your child, allow me to say this: Your child is not to be pitied,” Mantofa said, locking eyes with a grieving father seated in the front row. “Your child is already in God’s arms. One day, your family will be reunited in heaven.”
It is not known what caused the Singapore-bound plane to crash into the Java Sea 42 minutes after taking off on what was supposed to be a two-hour flight. Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, has been gripped by grief as bodies, one by one, continue arriving in simple, numbered coffins after being painstakingly pulled from the water.
The crash of Flight 8501 has triggered an intensive international search-and-recovery operation involving 20 planes and helicopters along with 27 ships from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.
-INDIA TODAY
