JAKARTA: Lion Air was confirmed to have disintegrated as a result of heavy impact with the surface of the sea in Tanjung Karawang on Oct 29.
National Transportation Safety Committee of Indonesia (KNKT) chief SoerjantoTjahjono said the aircraft did not explode in the air, but it broke apart after crashing at sea due to high speed and strong impact.
“The plane disintegrated or broke up after hitting the water, the debris of the plane was found scattered within a 250-metre radius on the sea floor,” he said.
As far as the search for the plane which had entered its 9th day yesterday, the search and rescue team (SAR) found pieces of the aircraft, engines and aircraft wheels, passengers’ personal belongings and pieces of flesh and limbs of the passengers.
On Thursday (Nov 1), the SAR team found the flight data recorder (FDR) of the aircraft, and now the search focus was on another part of the aircraft’s black box, namely, the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR).
The SAR operations using state-of-the-art technology such as sonar technology, found the FDR about 500 metres from the plane’s crash coordinate.
The JT610 flight, carrying 181 passengers and eight crew members, crashed at S 5 49.052 E 107 06.628 after departing from Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Oct 29 at 6.20 am.
The SAR operation also killed a diver, SyachrulAnto, 48, a diver from Indonesia Diving Rescue Team on Nov 3 due to decompression sickness.
Indonesia’s National Search and Assistance Agency (Basarnas), head Muhamad Syaugi said the focus of the operation was now on the coordinate the FDR was found but there was difficulty in detecting the ‘ping’ signal from the CVR in the last two days.
“As of today, 164 body bags (bodies) have been sent to the Indonesian Police Hospital for the identification process, the bags contain 429 pieces of body parts,” he said in a statement here.
He said, so far, as many as 27 bodies had been identified through deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiles. – Bernama
