Crashed plane’s fuselage ‘found’ as technicians suspended
INDONESIAN search and rescue workers believe they have found the fuselage of a Lion Air passenger jet that crashed with 189 people on board.
They are also trying to confirm the origin of an underwater “ping” signal, officials said yesterday.
Ground staff lost touch with flight JT610 of Indonesian budget airline Lion Air, 13 minutes after the Boeing 737 MAX 8 took off early on Monday from Jakarta, on its way to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.
There were no survivors. Indonesia’s military chief said he believed the plane had been located, and a transport safety official said divers would be sent to confirm the origin of a “ping” signal picked up by a search and rescue team late on Tuesday.
Speaking on board the navy ship KRI Rigel, navy official Colonel Haris Djoko Nugroho told broadcaster TVOne that a 22-metre-long object had been found in waters about 32 metres deep.
A sonar was being used to identify it.
Divers would also be sent to check, he said.
The Rigel has been searching in an area about nine nautical kilometres from the site where the aircraft lost contact.
The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer’s single-aisle jet.
The plane’s black boxes
Divers are being sent to confirm ‘ping’ signal
should help explain why the almost-new jet went down minutes after take-off.
Amid media speculation over the airworthiness of the aircraft, the transport minister suspended Lion Air’s technical director and several technicians to facilitate the crash investigation.
The suspended technicians “issued the recommendations for that flight”, the ministry said in a press release.
The statement did not say how many technicians had been suspended.