Crashed plane is found off Indonesian coastline
INDONESIAN authorities said yesterday that they have determined the site where a plane with 62 people on board crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off.
National Search and Rescue Agency head Bagus Puruhito said officials believe they have located the Boeing 737-500’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder – the socalled black boxes – because emergency signals transmitted by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system.
“We have determined the position of the plane’s black boxes from two signals emitted by the devices,” military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said. “Hopefully we can lift the black boxes in short time to determine the cause of the crash.”
Earlier yesterday, search and rescue operations resulted in parts of the plane being found in the sea at a depth of 75 feet, leading rescuers to continue searching the area.
“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Mr Tjahjanto said. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”
He said objects found included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts.
Earlier, rescuers retrieved body parts, pieces of children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface.
The breakthrough in the search for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 came after the navy ship’s sonar equipment detected a signal from the aircraft at a location that fitted with the coordinates from the last contact made by the pilots before the plane disappeared on Saturday afternoon, Mr Tjahjanto said.
The plane was en route from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island, on a flight that was expected to take around 90 minutes.
The cause of the crash is still unclear and there has been no sign of survivors.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said: “I represent the government and all Indonesians in expressing my deep condolences for this tragedy.
“We are doing our best to save the victims. We pray together so that the victims can be found.”
He added that he has asked the National Transport Safety Committee to carry out an investigation.
Fishermen in the area between
Lancang and Laki islands, part of an archipelago around Thousand Islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion at about 2.30pm on Saturday.
“We heard something explode – we thought it was a bomb or a tsunami since after that we saw a big splash from the water,” Solihin, who goes by one name, said by phone.
“It was raining heavily and the weather was so bad, so it was difficult to see around clearly, but we saw the splash and a big wave after the loud sound. We were very shocked and saw the plane debris and the fuel around our boat.”
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the flight was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2.36pm. It disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control.