debris they collected to the search and rescue ship off the
northern coast of Jakarta on January 12, 2021, during recovery
operations for Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 which crashed shortly
after takeoff from Jakarta on January 9 with 62 people onboard.
Azwar Ipank / AFPon>
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Indonesian divers returned Tuesday to a
wreckage-littered seabed off Jakarta in their hunt for the black
boxes that will likely be key to unlocking the mystery of why a
passenger jet carrying 62 people fell from the sky.
Some 3,600 personnel are taking part in the recovery effort,
assisted by dozens of boats and helicopters flying over small
islands off the capital’s coast.
Underwater images from Indonesia’s navy showed divers
plumbing the murky depths as they combed through twisted wreckage
from the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500, which plunged about 10,000
feet (3,000 metres) in less than a minute before slamming into the
Java Sea Saturday.
Authorities have so far been unable to explain why the
26-year-old plane crashed just four minutes after takeoff.
swordpress.ng ojoojoo.com search: Indonesia
Says Black Box Recorders From Crashed Plane Located
But they say they have narrowed down the location of the black
boxes to a 90 square-metre area after picking up signals from the
devices, which record information about the speed, altitude and
direction of the plane as well as flight crew conversations.
Black box data helps explain nearly 90 percent of all crashes,
according to aviation experts.
But the boxes could be hidden under layers of mud or plane
wreckage in waters about 23 metres (75 feet) deep, and divers
have to grapple with a strong current and poor weather.
“They’ve got to go through garbage and other debris (on the
seafloor) and the mud and visibility are also a challenge,” Yusuf
Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search-and-rescue agency,
said Tuesday.
The agency deployed a remotely operated vehicle to assist the
divers.
‘Hoping for a miracle’
Scores of body bags filled with human remains were being taken
to a police morgue where forensic investigators hope to identify
victims by matching fingerprints or DNA with distraught relatives —
some held out hope of survivors.
“We haven’t accepted it yet,” Inda Gunawan said of his brother
Didik Gunardi who was on the doomed Saturday flight.
“Our family is still hoping for a miracle that he is still
alive.”
Authorities have identified flight attendant Okky Bisma, 29, as
the first confirmed victim after matching fingerprints from a
retrieved hand to those in a government identity database.
“Rest in peace up there darling and wait for me… in heaven,”
Okky Bisma’s wife Aldha Refa wrote on Instagram.
There were 10 children among the passengers on the half-full
plane, which had experienced pilots at the controls as it left
Jakarta bound for Pontianak city on Borneo island on a 90-minute
flight.
A transport safety agency investigator has said the crew did not
declare an emergency or report technical problems with the plane
before its dive, and that the 737 was likely intact when it hit the
water.
Search-and-rescue agency chief Soerjanto Tjahjono echoed that
view Tuesday, pointing to the relatively small area where debris
was scattered.
“The size is consistent with the assumption that the plane
didn’t explode before hitting the water,” he added.
“The damage seen on the retrieved fan blade also shows that the
engine was still working” at the time of the crash.
The crash probe was likely to take months, but a preliminary
report was expected in 30 days.
Aviation analysts said flight-tracking data showed the plane
sharply deviated from its intended course before it went into a
steep dive.
Plagued by safety concerns
Sriwijaya Air, which flies to destinations
in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, has had safety incidents
including runway overruns.
But it has not had a fatal crash since starting operations
in 2003.
Its CEO has said the jet, which was previously flown by US-based
Continental Airlines and United Airlines, was in fit condition.
Indonesia’s fast-growing aviation sector has long been plagued
by safety concerns, and its airlines were once banned from US and
European airspace.
In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Lion Air Boeing
737 MAX jet crashed near Jakarta.
That accident — and another in Ethiopia — led to the grounding
of the 737 MAX worldwide.
The 737 that went down Saturday was first produced decades ago
and was not a MAX variant.
AFP
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