Belongings, debris, no fuselage
The search for the crashed Lion Air jet has revealed debris and belongings, but fuselage still is missing.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The search for the crashed Lion Air plane has found aircraft debris and passenger belongings on the seafloor but the object thought to be the fuselage is still missing, an Indonesian official said Wednesday.
Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said the findings give search team members confidence they will find the body of the aircraft. The location of the airplane’s “black box” flight data recorder has been identified, he said, but currents prevented it from being recovered.
“We saw belongings such as life jackets, pants, clothes scattered on the seabed,” Syaugi said. “We believe the fuselage will be around there, we hope that our target can be found.”
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea early Monday just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia’s fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists, and also raised doubts about the safety of Boeing’s new generation 737 MAX 8 plane.
Syaugi said one of the ships with high-tech equipment being used in the search dispatched a remote-operated vehicle that recorded parts of the aircraft on the seafloor but not the 72-foot-long object detected at a depth of 105 feet that is believed to be the fuselage. He said the area is about 1,300 feet from the coordinates where the airplane lost contact.
Searchers have sent 57 body bags containing human remains to police identification experts who on Wednesday said they’d identified their first victim, a 24-year-old woman, from a ring and a right hand.
Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests and police say results are expected within four to eight days.
Musyafak, head of Said Sukanto Police Hospital, said nearly 150 samples for DNA testing have been collected but more are still needed, especially from parents and children of victims.
Boeing Co. experts were headed to Indonesia on Wednesday and Lion Air has said an “intense” internal investigation is underway in addition to the probe by safety regulators.
Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight Sunday and on its fatal flight Monday. Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the plane’s black boxes.
Several passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that included a long-delayed takeoff for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.
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.
Lion Air’s technical director was removed from duty Wednesday at the order of the Transport Ministry. It also 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 $6.2 billion, and currently operates nine.