DIVER DIES IN SEARCH FOR JET CRASH DEAD
Indonesian volunteer part of team recovering body parts, plane debris
AN Indonesian diver died while recovering body parts from the ill-fated Lion Air plane which crashed into the sea killing 189 people, an official said yesterday.
Syachrul Anto, 48, who died on Friday, was part of the team searching for body parts and debris from the jet in the Java Sea.
“He was a volunteer with the Search and Rescue Agency,” Isswarto, commander of the Indonesian navy’s search-and-rescue (SAR) division, said.
It is believed he died from decompression.
“He was found by the SAR team, fainted. He was treated by our doctors. After he regained consciousness, we sent him to the chamber for decompression.
“We have all the equipment. However, God’s will says differently,” national SAR agency head Muhammad Syaugi said at a press conference.
Syachrul had previously served in Palu, which suffered an earthquake and tsunami in September, and was also involved in recovering the bodies and debris from an AirAsia plane crash nearly four years ago.
The Lion Air plane, which crashed on Monday, was en route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang city on Sumatra island.
It plunged into the water just minutes after take-off, killing everyone on board.
At least 73 bags containing body parts have been retrieved from the waters so far, but only four victims have been identified.
Officials on Thursday retrieved the flight data recorder, but are still searching for the second black box, the cockpit voice recorder, which could answer the question as to why the brand new Boeing-737 MAX 8 crashed.
“We have heard a weak ‘ping’. The divers are searching for it,” Muhammad said.
Two days after the flight data recorder was recovered, investigators at the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) have yet to download the key data due to salt residue on the memory card.
Nurcahyo Utomo, head of aircraft transport accident investigation at NTSC, said there were “some obstacles” and the process required more time than expected.
The committee has been receiving help from their American counterparts at the United States National Transportation Safety Board, but will be getting additional assistance from Australia, Nurcahyo added.
“This afternoon (yesterday), investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will arrive to help download the black box data,” he said.