The search is over. The rescue agency of Indonesia tasked to recover the bodies of people who perished in the ill-fated crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 into the Java Sea last December has called off the search.

To date, there are still 56 unrecovered bodies. Affected families have lamented the fact that they have not found closure and won't be able to move on from their momentous losses. The search agency head confirmed, however, that it will be pulling out the vessels. Scaling back the search followed the AirAsia chief's pronouncements that a protracted search will not be done. AirAsia's CEO had shown compassion and  had expressed that the company will be looking after the families of crew members and passengers who perished. It has been discussed with families that after expending much effort, the search operations cannot go on indefinitely.

There were 162 people onboard Airbus A320-200 en route to Singapore from Surabaya.  What could have been a happy holiday season turned into a nightmare, though. The crew lost touch with air traffic controllers and the plane - which had earlier asked to change flight path, eventually crashed.  Most of the passengers who met an untimely demise were Indonesians; and there was a British national and a Malaysian.

The hunt for remnants became an international effort, with Indonesia accepting offers from foreign countries to launch naval ships. It was only in January that Indonesian divers were able to go into the fuselage of AirAsia QZ8501. The last major component of the fuselage was only recovered a few weeks ago.

As for remnants of the bodies of passengers, there were some remains recovered at the Strait Karimata on that have been lined up for DNA testing. Though the official search has been called off,  reports indicated that a smaller-scale operation consisting of vessels and divers continued.