SURABAYA, Feb 11 ― The remains of the sole Malaysian victim, Sii Chung Huei, in the AirAsia QZ8501 crash last December 28, was flown to Kuching, Sarawak today.
The coffin carrying Sii's remains departed on a Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130 aircraft from the Indonesian Naval Force Runway (Lanudal) in Juanda, here, at 10.40am.
Also on board the aircraft were Sii's wife Wong Muk Ngiik, their two children and a few other family members. They were accompanied by an officer from the Malaysian embassy in Jakarta.
Malaysian ambassador to Indonesia, Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohamed Hashim said Sii's body was found by the Indonesian search team on Feb 5 and verified through DNA testing two days ago before being handed over to his family,
He said Wong had come again to Surabaya on February 6 upon hearing that the Indonesian authorities had found a few more bodies of the crash victims.
Wong and her family were earlier waiting in Surabaya for over a month for news on Sii's fate following the crash last December 28.
“We thank the RMAF and AirAsia which have assisted us by making arrangements to hand over his (Sii) remains to us and to bring it back to Kuching,” she told reporters, here.
Also present at Lanudal was Zahrain's wife, Datin Seri Che Mahani Ismail.
Sii, 56, a businessman from Kuching but based in Jakarta, was on the ill-fated aircraft while en route to Singapore from Surabaya when it crashed in the Java Sea.
There were 162 people on board the plane and so far, 102 bodies have been found while the Indonesian authorities also found the plane's black box two weeks ago.
The search operation by the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Body (Basarnas) is still going on. ― Bernama
