Low tide made it difficult to retrieve the body of the third victim in Thursday's helicopter tragedy in Sebuyau, said Sarawak police commissioner Muhammad Sabtu Osman.

He said the search and rescue team could not use their boats and had to do an airlift.

Following information from the public, police discovered the body at 10.30am, about one kilometre from where the body of the first victim was found yesterday, he told a press conference in Kuching today.

He said the body was retrieved at noon and brought to the SAR team's command and control base in Lingga before being airlifted to the Kuching police headquarters and onward transfer to the Sarawak general hospital here.

The first body recovered by the search and rescue team yesterday was identified as that of Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Noriah Kasnon while the second body found today has yet to be identified.

Noriah's remains were flown to Kuala Lumpur last night and laid to rest at the Batu 12 Sungai Burong Muslim cemetery today.

Noriah was travelling with her husband Asmuni Abdullah, Kuala Kangsar MP and Malaysian Palm Oil Board member Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, ministry secretary-general Dr Sundaran Annamalai, her bodyguard Ahmad Sobri Harun and the pilot Captain Rudolf Rex Ragas.

The helicopter took off from Betong enroute to Kuching at 4.12pm on Thursday but lost contact with the control tower three minutes later.

- Bernama