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JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia stepped up Tuesday's search for an airliner that plunged into the sea with 189 dead on board, deploying underwater beacons to track its black box recorders and find out why an almost new plane sank a few minutes after takeoff.
Members of the rescue team prepare to dive to the place where Lion Air flight JT610 crashed into the sea, on the north coast of Karawang Regency, in the province of West Java, in Indonesia, October 30, 2018. REUTERS / Beawiharta
Indonesia, one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, has an uneven security record. With the death almost certain of everyone on board, this accident is supposed to be the second most serious air disaster in the country.
Ground personnel lost contact with low-cost Lion Air flight JT610 13 minutes after takeoff of Boeing 737 MAX 8 from Jakarta airport, the capital, to the Indonesian mining region d & # 39; tin.
"I hope we can find the wreckage or the fuselage this morning," said Reuters Soerjanto Tjahjono, chairman of the National Committee on Transportation Safety, adding that an underwater acoustic beacon had been deployed to locate the main body of the aircraft.
The search and rescue agency added that four sonar detectors were also being used in areas where aircraft debris had been found a day earlier off Karawang, in western Java, and that 15 were searching the surface of the sea.
A helicopter flew over five rubber canoes carrying about 36 rescuers, some wearing a rubber suit and preparing to dive.
Yusuf Latif, the spokesman for the national search and rescue agency, said earlier that the survivors' discovery would be a miracle, judging by the state of the debris and recovered body parts.
In a statement, Lion Air said the human remains had been collected in 24 body bags after a sweep of the accident site, in waters located at a depth of about 30 to 35 meters (98 to 115 feet) about 15 km from the coast to the coast. northeast of Jakarta.
The bags were taken to the hospital for identification, and more is expected overnight, officials told Metro TV.
On tarpaulins at the port of Jakarta, officers exposed items salvaged from sea, ranging from oxygen bottles to personal belongings such as wallets, a cell phone, money and backpacks.
Although the researchers suspended their efforts during the night, sonars and an underwater drone continued the wreck hunt, where many victims were reportedly trapped, officials said.
A witness in Karawang testified that he heard an explosion on the beach about the time the aircraft broke down.
"I thought it was thunder, but it was different from the thunder -" Boom! "- It was noisy," said Dadang Hambali.
On Monday, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Boeing Co (PROHIBIT) stated that they provide assistance in the investigation of the crash.
(For more details on the research, crash investigation, please click)
The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's single-aisle jet.
Private company Lion Air, founded in 1999, said the aircraft, in service since August, was airworthy, with its pilot and co-pilot having accumulated 11,000 flight hours.
The pilot of flight JT610, who was due to travel to Pangkal Pinang in the Bangka-Belitung mining area, had requested to return to the base (RTB) shortly after take-off at around 6:20 am, with a planned landing at 7:20 am in Pangkal City. Pinang.
"An RTB has been requested and approved, but we are still trying to understand why," Tjahjono told reporters on Monday.
The transmitter of the aircraft's emergency aircraft, Muhmmad Syaugi, head of the search and rescue agency, received no distress signal at a press conference.
The plane suffered a technical problem during a flight between Bali and Jakarta Sunday night, but the problem was "solved according to the procedure," told reporters Edward Sirait, general manager of Lion Air Group.
Sirait refused to specify the nature of the problem, but said that none of the other aircraft of this model had the same problem. Lion had operated 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and he had no intention of anchoring them to the ground, he said.
The worst air disaster in Indonesia occurred in 1997, when an A300 Garuda Indonesia crashed in the city of Medan, killing 234 people.
Additional reports by Agustinus Beo Da Costa, Gayatri Suroyo, Fransiska Nangoy, Fanny Potkin and Fathin Ungku in JAKARTA, Tabita Diela in PANGKAL PINANG, Fergus Jensen in PAKISJAYA, Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE and Tim Hepher in HONG KONG; Written by John Chalmers; Edited by Clarence Fernandez
