Possible seabed position of crashed Lion Air jet located
JAKARTA, Indonesia — A massive search effort has identified the possible seabed location of the crashed Lion Air jet, Indonesia’s military chief said on Wednesday, as experts carried out the grim task of identifying dozens of body parts recovered from a 28-kilometer-wide search area and video of passengers boarding the fatal flight emerged.
The 2-month-old Boeing plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, with 189 people on board.
“This morning I’ve been briefed by the head of Search and Rescue Agency about the strong possibility of the location coordinates” of Flight 610, said armed forces chief Hadi Tjahjanto. “We’re going to see it ourselves on location. And hopefully that is the main body of the plane that we’ve been looking for.”
The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia’s fast-growing aviation industry and also raised doubts about the safety of Boeing’s new generation 737 MAX 8 plane.
Boeing experts were expected to arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday and Lion Air has said an internal investigation is under way in addition to the probe by safety regulators.
Locating the fuselage will bring the search effort closer to finding the airplane’s flight recorders, which are crucial to the accident investigation.
Navy officer Haris Djoko Nugroho said the 22-meter long object is at a depth of 32 meters.
He said divers will be deployed after side-scan sonar has produced more detailed images. He said it was first located on Tuesday evening.
“There are some small objects that we found, but last night, thank God, we found a large enough object,” he said.
Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight on Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the plane’s black boxes, which officials are confident will be recovered.
Although it is now almost certain that everyone on the plane died, relatives are desperate to find traces of their loved ones. Only body parts and debris have been found.
DNA tests
Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests and police had said results were expected within 4-8 days.
Musyafak, the head of Said Sukanto Police Hospital, said nearly 150 samples for testing have been collected but more are still needed, especially from parents and children of victims.
Indonesia’s Transport Ministry has ordered all Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes operated by Lion Air and national carrier Garuda to be inspected. Lion has ordered 50 of the jets, worth an estimated $6.2 billion, and currently operates nine.
Boeing declined to comment about potential inspections globally.
The crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea in December 2014, killing all 162 on board.
Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June. The United States lifted a decadelong ban in 2016.
Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia’s youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.