“There are seven to eight people. Three [of them] again hold hands,” The Independent quotes him as telling Indonesian national newspaper Kompas.
Airman Tri Wobowo, who co-piloted the C130 Hercules aircraft, was the first to notice the items possibly belonging to the aircraft off the coast of Borneo.
Apart from the bodies of the passengers, the pilot reported seeing luggage, buoys and pieces of the aircraft itself – painted the distinctive red, black and white of AirAsia.
President Joko Widodo said the search is expected to continue through the night, adding that finding passengers and crew members was the first priority.
Debris from the AirAsia Airbus are scattered in a five-kilometer (4.5 miles) zone at the entrance to the Karimat Strait, an area dividing the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan, Indonesian VIVAnews agency reported, citing the Head of Basarnas.
AirAsia's Flight QZ8501, flying from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday morning. The Airbus A320-200 was carrying 155 passengers, mostly Indonesians, and seven crew members.
The missing plane, en route above the Java Sea, did not transmit distress signals prior to its disappearance from radar screens.
