Divers hear ‘pings’ as they near wreckage
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Search and rescue divers working in Indonesian waters heard regular “pings” in what authorities said Wednesday they hope will turn out to be the main body of the Lion Air plane that plunged into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff Monday morning.
A team of rescuers heard pings from an underwater locator beacon with a distinct sound and interval between them, making it very likely that the wreckage and the location of the flight recorder have been identified, authorities said.
“We hope that [the main wreckage] can be found tonight, including the black box, because the ‘pings’ were heard,” said Muhammad Syaugi, head of the Indonesian national search-andrescue agency, speaking late Wednesday.
The mission has swelled to almost 1,000 people. Divers were battling strong currents as they scoured the surface of the sea, and had widened the search area, pulling out heaps of debris, including life jackets and clothing. At one point, a remotely operated vehicle being used in the search was carried away by the current, officials said.
All 189 people on board are believed to have died in the crash. Finding the main body of the aircraft, including the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, would be a significant development for investigators, who are working to determine what caused the almost new Boeing jet to crash in good weather about 13 minutes after it took off.
The crash of Lion Air Flight 610 is just the latest in a string of incidents for the airline
A team of engineers from Boeing was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Wednesday for meetings with Lion Air, according to Indonesia’s transportation safety committee.
One hundred divers were searching five areas off the coast of the island of Java, said Didi Hamzar, the national search and rescue agency’s director of preparedness, after a large, unknown object was detected underwater by an Indonesian naval vessel. Searchers have pulled belongings — including wallets, purses and phones — from the water, as well as body parts, but the plane’s fuselage remains missing.
Bambang Soesatyo, speaker of Indonesia’s House of Representatives, called on the government Wednesday to conduct an immediate inspection of all airlines operating in the country. The Lion Air crash was “not the first” aviation trouble in Indonesia, he said.