Irish Daily Mirror

Family die in crash .. after flights swap

Mum, child & relatives had been on holidays

- BY ANDY LINES Chief Reporter news@ irishmirro­r. ie @ andylines

A FAMILY killed in the Indonesian plane tragedy were on board after changing flights at the last minute.

Mum Ratih Windania, who was four months pregnant, posted photos online just before the doomed f light from Jakarta which claimed the lives of 62 people including seven children.

She had been on a three- week holiday visiting relatives in the capital with her daughter Yumna, two, nephew Athar Rizki Riawan, eight, and her uncle Tony Islmail and aunt Rachmawati.

Ratih wrote “bye bye family. We’re heading home for now” with pictures of two laughing children in their seats.

After the crash, her brother Irfansyah posted “pray for us” on Instagram along with a picture of the family. He wrote:

“We f feel l powerless, l we can only l wait and hope to have any informatio­n soon.”

He revealed his relatives had originally been due to take an earlier f light operated by a sister airline but it was unclear why that was changed.

The family were taking the 450- mile trip home to the city of Pontianak on the i sland of West Kalimantan.

Irfansyah said: “I was the one who drove them to the airport, helped with the check- ins and the luggage. I

DISASTER A Sriwijaya Air plane feel like I still can’t believe this and it happened too fast.”

Indonesian authoritie­s have discovered where the Boeing 737- 500 j et crashed into the sea.

Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee, said: “We have located the position of the black boxes, both of them.

“Divers wil l st ar t l o o k i n g f o r t h e m now and hopefully it won’t be long before we get them.”

Sriwijaya Air

f light 182

GRIM TASK Body bags are delivered for investigat­ion di sa sappeared of f radar screens f our minutes min into Saturday’s journey from the c capital’s airport.

Human Hu remains and plane wreckage have been pulled from the crash site.

The jet had been delayed from taking off for 30 minutes because of heavy rain.

Shortly aft er t ake of f , t he pl ane plunged 10,000 feet in less than a minute before disappeari­ng off radars, according to the global f light tracking ser vice Flightrada­r24.

Five body bags containing victims of the crash have already been taken to a local hospital.

Another 10 bags filled with wreckage and debris from the aircraft have now been handed to air crash investigat­ors.

 ??  ?? TRAGIC IMAGE Mum Raith and kids in plane seats
WRECK SITE Investigat­ors pulling debris from the ocean
TRAGIC IMAGE Mum Raith and kids in plane seats WRECK SITE Investigat­ors pulling debris from the ocean
 ??  ?? d
BREAK Ratih & children
d BREAK Ratih & children
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it

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