AIRASIA PLANE FOUND: DEBRIS CONFIRMED TO BE FROM MISSING PLANE

...Victims' Relatives in Shock as Indonesian TV Airs Images of Floating Body

Indonesian rescue workers have found bodies and luggage off the coast of Borneo Island as officials this morning confirmed they had discovered debris from the missing AirAsia flight.

AirAsia flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday during bad weather as it was travelling from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

And large objects resembling the ‘wall or door’ of the plane, bodies, life-jackets and luggage have all been seen in the search zone for the plane, which was carrying 162 people when it vanished.

Meanwhile, family members of passengers onboard the missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501 react after watching news reports showing an unidentified body floating in the Java sea, inside the crisis-centre set up at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya on December 30, 2014.

Official in charge of search says he is "95 percent" sure fresh sightings are from missing plane

When graphic news images of a body were shown on TV screens set up in family waiting areas, dozens burst into hysterical wailing. At least two people fainted and were carried out to waiting ambulances.

The broadcasting of the images has provoked criticism, prompting a news anchor from TV One, a live news channel, to apologize to waiting relatives.

Officials had earlier confirmed to family members that an emergency exit door, a life jacket and other objects were spotted by an Indonesian Air Force plane, around 100 miles off Pangkalan Bun, Borneo.

An official from Basarnas, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, based at Pangkalan Bun said they had seen three bodies but failed to retrieve them because of choppy conditions.

The co-pilot of C-130 Hercules aircraft, Air Force First Lieutenant Tri Wibowo, earlier told Indonesian media that he had seen objects floating in the Karimata Strait, in the waters around Ketapang district in West Kalimantan, that resembled a body, luggage, a life jacket and plane debris.

As that news trickled in, friends and relatives of passengers sat listlessly in the airport’s crisis center, sobbing quietly into tissues and gazing into space.

However, it was the shocking reality of the televised news images that caused the real outpouring of despair and grief.

Police officers in blue berets prevented dozens of press from entering the building, but that didn’t stop journalists pressing up against the windows. Inside, food cartons and other paper objects were torn up and used to cover the glass to prevent media from looking in.

“As the search and rescue coordinator, I can 95 percent confirm [that this is] debris and objects from the plane,” said Basarnas chief Bambang Soelistyo, at a news conference just a short while earlier. “The five percent is simply because I haven’t seen personally seen them.”

He added that he was now dispatching divers to look for more debris in the area’s shallow waters.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said he will visit both the crisis center in Surabaya and the suspected crash location near Pangkalan Bun.

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes tweeted that he was also “rushing” to Surabaya.

The plane’s disappearance is the third Malaysian-related air tragedy this year (QZ 8501’s owner, Indonesia AirAsia, is in turn 49% owned by Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia). Though none of the disasters are related, Malaysian aviation’s annus horribilis has spooked regional travelers.

No distress call was issued before the plane disappeared from radar, and no emergency locator transmitters have been detected. Bad weather is thought a likely contributing factor to the plane’s fate.