Crash site may have been found
Indonesia
A massive search effort has identified the possible seabed location of the crashed Lion Air jet, Indonesia’s military chief says, as experts carry out the grim task of identifying dozens of body parts recovered from the search area.
The two-month-old Boeing plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
‘‘I’ve been briefed by the head of Search and Rescue Agency about the strong possibility of the location coordinates’’ of Lion Air 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 fastgrowing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and United States blacklists, and also raised doubts about the safety of Boeing’s new-generation 737 MAX 8 plane.
Boeing experts are expected to arrive in Indonesia today, and Lion Air has said an ‘‘intense’’ 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, interviewed by Indonesian television at the search location, said the 22-metre object was at a depth of 32m.
He said divers would be deployed after side-scan sonar had produced more detailed images.
Data from flight tracking websites shows the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday.
Passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that including a longdelayed takeoff for an engine check, unusual engine noises, vibrations, sudden drops in altitude, and cabin temperature problems.
Lion Air has said maintenance was carried out on the aircraft after the Sunday flight and a problem, which it didn’t specify, was fixed.
Officials said the non-stop search effort had sent 48 body bags containing human remains to police identification experts. Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests, and police say results are expected within four to eight days.
Daniel Putut, a Lion Air managing director, said the airline hoped to meet with Boeing officials today.
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, and currently operates nine.
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 US lifted a decade-long ban in
2016. –AP
‘‘Hopefully, that is the main body of the plane that we’ve been looking for.’’
Hadi Tjahjanto, Indonesian armed forces chief