THIRD DAY SRIWIJAYA AIRCRAFT SAR FOCUSES ON LOCATING BLACK BOX

11 JAN 2021

JAKARTA: The 24-hour operation to seek the victims, wreckage and black box of the Sriwijaya Air aircraft that crashed last Saturday in the waters of Pulau Seribu entered its third day today.

The search and rescue (SAR) team today found more body parts and aircraft engines. Meanwhile, 16 packages containing body parts had been sent to the Police Hospital in Kramat Jati today as of 10.30 am.

The search operation was carried out continuously for 24 hours, with the exception of the diving team, which did not operate at night and only returned to work this morning.

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Public Information and Communications Bureau, in a statement, said that the SAR operation involved the police, army, National Search and Aid Agency and other related agencies.

Four helicopters, two aircraft and 38 ships, equipped with instruments such as Multibeam Echosounder and Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) were used in the SAR.

Indonesian Army Commander Hadi Tjahjanto said the focus of the search was now on getting the plane's black box.

The co-ordinates of the black box had been identified to be at a depth of 23 metres on the seabed in the waters of Pulau Seribu.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Police’s Community Relations Division, Community Information Bureau chief, Rusdi Hartono said 40 samples of "deoxyribonucleic acid" from the families of the passengers of the aircraft had been collected.

He said the samples had been obtained as of 10.30 am this morning and would be used for "anter-mortem" and "post-mortem" processes.

The Boeing 737-500 Sriwijaya Air flight from Jakarta to Pontianak carrying 62 passengers, including 12 crew, lost contact after taking off at 2.36 pm on Saturday, before crashing in the waters of Pulau Seribu, Jakarta. -Bernama