Even as the search for missing AirAsia plane 8501 continues, Indonesian navy says they have found more than 40 bodies of those who were travelling in the aircraft.

Relatives of passengers on AirAsia flight QZ8501 began crying hysterically and fainting Tuesday as Indonesian television footage showed a body floating in the sea during aerial searches for the plane.

At least two distraught family members were carried out on stretchers from the room where they had been waiting for news in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city — the take-off point for the aircraft that disappeared during a storm on Sunday.

“My heart will be totally crushed if it’s true. I will lose a son,” 60-year-old Dwijanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.

As the first body was shown floating in the water on rolling television news, relatives burst into tears and hugged one another amid cries for more ambulances, said an AFP reporter at the scene.

Updates:

7:01 P.M. The pilot who discovered the AirAsia plane debri in the Java Sea said he saw that three of the bodies recovered were holding hands, according to The Independent.

Meanwhile, Indonesian President Joko Widodo held a press conference, according to BBC, in which he condoled the deaths in the incident, saying, “We pray for strength for the families…We thank countries around the region for helping with the search for the plane.”

Widodo also said, “Search and rescue operation will continue, and all teams must focus on finding passengers and crew.”

6:02 P.M.

The pilot who discovered the AirAsia plane debri in the Java Sea said he saw that three of the bodies recovered were holding hands, according to The Independent.

Meanwhile, Indonesian President Joko Widodo held a press conference, according to BBC, in which he condoled the deaths in the incident, saying, “We pray for strength for the families…We thank countries around the region for helping with the search for the plane.”

Widodo also said, “Search and rescue operation will continue, and all teams must focus on finding passengers and crew.”

ndonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency chief said Tuesday that just three bodies had been recovered so far in the search for the AirAsia plane which crashed in the Java Sea, after another official said 40 had been found.

“Today we evacuated three bodies and they are now in the warship Bung Tomo,” Bambang Soelistyo told a news conference in Jakarta, adding that they were two females and one male.

Navy spokesman Manahan Simorangkir told AFP earlier that according to naval radio a warship had recovered more than 40 bodies from the sea. But he later said that report was a miscommunication by his staff.