Tony Fernandes to escort family of QZ8501 crew member to Palembang

One AirAsia flight QZ8501 flight attendant's body has been recovered and if her remains are confirmed to be Khairunnisa Haidar Fauzie, the low-cost carrier's chief Tan Sri Tony Fernandes will escort her family home to Palembang.

Fernandes, who is AirAsia group chief executive officer, said this today in his tweet: "If our beautiful and wonderful crew is identified, we will go from Surabaya to Palembang with her parents. Heartbreaking soul destroying (sic)."

He may be making the trip very soon, as Indonesian news portal Detik.com reported this afternoon that three of the bodies recovered since Tuesday had been identified. This is based on identification found on them.

Khairunnisa, 22, was one of them. The other two named in the Detik.com report are Hayati Lutfiah Hamid from Tegalsari in Surabaya, and Kevin Alexander Soetjipto from Malang City, who was a university student in Australia.

Khairunnisa joined AirAsia last year. She is the youngest and only daughter among three siblings and had studied law.

Yesterday, when authorities reported that one female body clad in the red AirAsia uniform had been found, her family hoped that it was her.

Her father Haidar Fauzie and brother M. Ikhsan Nul Kamil said that their family have accepted that she was gone and wanted her body found.

Khairunnisa was reportedly one of two female crew members onboard flight QZ8501, with senior flight attendant Wanti Setiawati. The flight had seven AirAsia staff onboard comprising the pilot, co-pilot, four cabin crew and a technician.

Flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea early Sunday morning in bad weather while flying from Surabaya to Singapore with 155 passengers, including 17 children and one infant.

It was reported that seven bodies had been recovered and identification process were under way once they were sent to Surabaya, where families have gathered to identify their loved ones.

Detik.com reported today that authorities had taken DNA samples from 153 family members of the passengers. The Immigration department was sharing data from the passengers' passports to assist the identification process.

Meanwhile, Fernandes also tweeted that there was information that the plane had been found.

“I am hoping that the latest information is correct and aircraft has been found. Please all hope together. This is so important,” he said in a post at 1.51pm today.

The flight was carrying 155 passengers on board, including 16 children and one infant.

The passengers comprise 149 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one Singaporean, one Malaysian and one Briton. – January 1, 2015.

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