Divers deployed to search for crashed airliner
Print Edition
INDONESIA deployed divers yesterday to search for an airliner that crashed with 189 people on board, as “pinger locators” tried to zero in on its cockpit recorders and find out why an almost-new plane went down in the sea minutes after takeoff.
Indonesia, one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, has a patchy safety record. With the now almost certain prospect of all on board having died, the crash is set to rank as its second-worst air disaster.
Ground staff lost contact with flight JT610 of budget airline Lion Air 13 minutes after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft took off early yesterday from Jakarta on its way to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.
Dozens of relatives of those on board gathered at a police hospital where body bags were brought for forensic doctors to try to identify victims, including by taking saliva swabs from family members for DNA tests.
“I keep praying for a miracle although logically, the plane has sunk in the ocean,” said Toni Priyono Adhi, whose daughter was on the flight. “But as a parent, I want a miracle.”
A Reuters witness on a boat at the crash site saw about 60 divers scattered in inflatable boats over the slightly choppy waters entering the sea, which is about 35 meters deep.
Sonar vessels and an underwater drone have also been hunting for the wreckage of the fuselage, where many victims were feared trapped, officials said.
The head of a national transport safety panel, Soerjanto Tjahjono, said that underwater “pinger locators,” including equipment from Singapore, were being deployed to help find the aircraft’s black boxes. The priority is finding the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to help determine the cause of the disaster, safety experts said. “The visibility is not good as it’s very overcast,” a special forces officer said.
Underwater footage released by the national search and rescue agency showed relatively poor visibility. In all, 35 vessels are helping to search.
The focus was initially an area within 5 nautical miles of where the plane lost contact, but that was expanded to 10 nautical miles yesterday and will be expanded to 15 today, a search and rescue agency officer said.
Debris found
But only debris, personal items, including 52 identification cards and passports, and body parts have been found off the shore of Karawang district, east of Jakarta.
Police said human remains were collected in 37 body bags after sweeps of the site, roughly 15km off the coast.
Most of those on board were Indonesian but the airline has said an Italian passenger and Indian pilot were on the plane. The pilot of flight JT610 had asked to return to base shortly after it took off, at about 6.20am on Monday. Investigators are trying to determine why the pilot issued the request, which was granted.
The deputy of the national transportation safety committee said the plane had technical problems on its previous flight, from the city of Denpasar on Bali island on Sunday, including an issue over “unreliable airspeed.”
“We are also asking for information from the last pilot who flew from Denpasar to Jakarta, but we have not met the technician,” Haryo Satmiko said, referring to the technician who handled the aircraft on Sunday.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told reporters that the investigation would result in sanctions being handed out, but he did not elaborate.
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