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By Tabita Diela
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian authorities have extended the search for victims and a black box for three days in the wreckage of an aircraft that crashed last week, killing 189 people on board.
"We decided to extend it for three days" as of Monday, said Muhammad Syaugi, head of the search and rescue agency (Basarnas), during a press conference.
The decision was based on an assessment and observations of the location of the accident, he told reporters, noting that many remains of victims had not been found.
As of Sunday, 105 body bags, some with intact remains, had been recovered and turned over to the police for forensic identification, but only seven casualties had been identified.
"I'm sure the total will increase," Syaugi said.
The agency gives priority to the recovery of human remains and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the second black box of the all-new Boeing Co. 737 MAX destroyed, which struck the sea on Monday morning, 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta.
Divers were looking for ping signals in their search for the second gearbox, while investigators were trying to get data from a partly damaged flight data recorder retrieved Thursday.
"The signal picked up by the ping locator was followed by reliable divers," said Syaugi, "but they have not found it yet."
The unit is thought to be about 50 meters from the main search area, where the water depth is only 30 m (98 ft), but ocean currents and mud on the seabed, more than a meter deep, have complicated the research, says Syaugi.
The pilot of JT610 had requested and obtained permission to return to Jakarta, but what went wrong remains a mystery.
Although relatives of the victims are desperate to find out what happened, the investigation of the first crash of a Boeing 737 MAX is also subject to close scrutiny from the global aviation industry. The findings of the preliminary inquiry should be made public after 30 days.
Indonesia is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, but its safety record is variable. Its transport safety group investigated 137 serious aeronautical incidents between 2012 and 2017.
"We still have a lot to improve," airline chief executive Pramintohadi Sukarno said on Saturday at a press conference about safety rules.
(Written by Fergus Jensen, edited by Kim Coghill)
