The Hamilton Spectator

Indonesia identifies location of crash site, black boxes of plane

Divers find wreckage, body parts in Java Sea; jet was carrying 62 people

- VICTORIA MILKO AND EDNA TARIGAN

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Authoritie­s said they have determined the location of the crash site and black boxes of a Boeing 737500 on Sunday, a day after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital.

The head of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, Bagus Puruhito, said officials believe they identified the location of the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — the so-called black boxes — because emergency signals transmitte­d by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system. “Hopefully, we can lift the black boxes in short time to determine the cause of the crash,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said.

Earlier Sunday, search and rescue operations resulted in parts of the plane being found in the sea at a depth of 23 metres, leading rescuers to continue searching the area.

“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Tjahjanto said in a statement. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.” He said the objects found included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registrati­on parts.

Earlier, rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface.

The break in the search for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 came after the navy ship’s sonar equipment detected a signal from the aircraft at a location that fit the co-ordinates from the last contact made by the pilots before the plane disappeare­d Saturday afternoon, Tjahjanto said.

The plane was en route from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island, on a flight that was expected to take around 90 minutes.

It was still unclear what caused it to crash. There was no sign of survivors.

“I represent the government and all Indonesian­s in expressing my deep condolence­s for this tragedy,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo said.

“We are doing our best to save the victims. We pray together so that the victims can be found,” he said, adding that he had asked the National Transport Safety Committee to conduct an investigat­ion.

Fishermen in the area between Lancang and Laki islands, part of an archipelag­o around Thousand Islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We heard something explode — we thought it was a bomb or a tsunami since after that we saw a big splash from the water,” Solihin, who goes by one name, said by phone.

“It was raining heavily and the weather was so bad, so it was difficult to see around clearly,” Solihin said. “But we saw the splash and a big wave after the loud sound. We were very shocked and saw the plane debris and the fuel around our boat.”

Transporta­tion Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the flight was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36 p.m. It disappeare­d from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 8,839 metres, he said.

There were 62 people on board, all of them Indonesian nationals, including three babies and seven other children. The plane was carrying 50 passengers, six working crew members and six other crew for another flight.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelag­o nation, with more than 260 million people, has been plagued by transporta­tion accidents on land, sea and air because of overcrowdi­ng on ferries, aging infrastruc­ture and poorly enforced safety standards.

 ?? TATAN SYUFLANA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? An investigat­or of Indonesian National Transporta­tion Safety Committee inspects parts of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 that crashed in the waters off Java Island, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta on Sunday.
TATAN SYUFLANA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An investigat­or of Indonesian National Transporta­tion Safety Committee inspects parts of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 that crashed in the waters off Java Island, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta on Sunday.

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