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Members of an Indonesian search and rescue team carry items found during the search operation for the missing AirAsia flight 8501 on January 4, 2015.(Photo: Adek Berry, AFP/Getty Images)
Family members of many victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 marked a week since the crash with hymns, prayers and tears Sunday.
The Rev. Philip Mantofa, whose congregation in Surabaya, Indonesia, included more than a quarter of the victims, led a chapel service aimed at bringing a small amount of comfort amid the tragedy.
"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."
Rain, rolling waves and low visibility delayed divers from reaching the wreckage Sunday after four large objects were detected on the floor of the murky Java Sea.
"At this moment, it's impossible to send any divers," said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency. "We'll wait until the weather gets better."
Search teams hunting for AirAsia Flight 8501 with 162 people on board find four large plane parts on sea bed but haven't been able to take images of the suspected wreck yet. Mana Rabiee reports.
Indonesian officials appeared confident the objects were from the jet that crashed with 162 people aboard.
"We've found four big parts from the plane we're looking for," Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta on Saturday, Reuters reported.
The largest piece — measuring 59 feet long and 18 feet wide — is believed to be part of the jet's body, Soelistyo said. Other debris in the area measured up to 39 feet long. The objects were found Friday and Saturday using sonar equipment.
After a week-long search, just 34 bodies have been pulled from the water. Officials said they expect to find many of the passengers and crew still strapped to their seats inside the plane.
"Many of the passengers are believed to be still trapped inside the plane's fuselage and could be discovered soon," said rescue official Supriyadi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name. "God willing, we will complete this operation next week."
USA TODAY
30 AirAsia victims recovered; some belted in seats
Bowing to the request of family members, police will no longer allow media to cover the transfer of bodies identified by its Disaster Victim Identification team, East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono said.
"The families have objected. This is a private matter, let's respect this," Awi told The Jakarta Post.
The Airbus A320-200 crashed a week ago on a two-hour flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore.
The discovery of the massive objects came as Indonesian authorities grounded AirAsia flights from Surabaya to Singapore, saying the airline did not have a license for the route for Sunday flights. However, Singapore's Civil Aviation Authority said the airline had been approved to fly the route daily.
No definitive cause for the crash had been determined, but weather could have played a role. The jet's last communication indicated pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the airliner disappeared from radar without issuing a distress signal.
USA TODAY
Answering what caused AirAsia crash is rigorous process
"Flight 8501 appears to have been trapped in bad weather that would have been difficult to avoid," according to a 14-page report released by Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.
The jet's all-important black boxes — which have yet to be located — will likely shed light on the plane's final moments and should contain the pilots' dialogue, along with hundreds of streams of information about how the plane was behaving.
The crash triggered a massive international operation involving 20 planes and helicopters along with 27 ships from Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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