- Indonesian divers, 'pinger locators', hunt for doomed plane's cockpit recorders
- No Vietnamese citizens onboard crashed Indonesian plane
- Indonesian plane with 189 on board crashes after take-off from Jakarta
Ground staff lost contact 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.
It is now almost certain that everyone on the plane died, but relatives are desperate to find traces of their loved ones though so far only debris and body parts have been found.
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| Search for crashed Indonesian passenger aircraft widens |
Indonesia has deployed teams of divers to search for the aircraft while also using “pinger locators” in a bid to zero in on its cockpit recorders and find out why an almost-new plane went down in the sea minutes after take off.
A Reuters witness on a boat at the crash site on Tuesday saw about 60 divers scattered in inflatable boats over the slightly choppy waters entering the sea, which is about 35 meters (115 feet) deep. In all, 35 vessels are helping in the search.
Only debris, personal items, including 52 identification cards and passports, and body parts have been found off the shore of Karawang district, east of Jakarta.President Joko Widodo visited Jakarta’s port on Tuesday where the pile of debris has been laid out on tarpaulins, examining the items including mangled seats, bags, shoes and flight attendant uniforms.
Officials said human remains were collected in 37 body bags after sweeps of the site, roughly 15 km (nine miles) off the coast.
Dozens of relatives of those on board gathered at a police hospital where body bags were brought for forensic doctors to try to identify victims, including by taking saliva swabs from family members for DNA tests.
“I keep praying for a miracle although logically, the plane has sunk in the ocean,” said Toni Priyono Adhi, whose daughter was on the flight.
“But as a parent, I want a miracle.”
The pilot of the downed aircraft had asked to return to base shortly after take off. Investigators are trying to determine why the pilot issued the request, which was granted.
The deputy of the national transportation safety committee has said that the plane had technical problems on its previous flight, from the city of Denpasar on Bali island on Sunday, including an issue over “unreliable airspeed”.
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 workhorse single-aisle jet.
