JAYAPURA (Papua): A joint search and rescue team on Tuesday reached the wreckage of Semuwa Air’s Cessna Grand Caravan C208B aircraft that crashed in the wilderness of Highland Papua last week and evacuated the bodies of all victims, reported ANTARA.
The operational chief of the Jayapura Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Marinus Ohoirat, confirmed that the aircraft was found destroyed and burned, and all passengers and crew were found dead.
The victims’ bodies were flown to Jayapura and transported to the city’s Bhayangkara Hospital for identification.
“After the identification process, the bodies will be handed over to their families,” Ohoirat said.
The joint SAR team comprised 12 officers from Basarnas and the Indonesian Air Force’s Special Force, he added.
The aircraft, bearing registration code PK-SMW, was reported missing en route from Elelim to Poik regions on June 23, 2023, the morning after it failed to arrive in Poik at the scheduled time.
The crash site was later found by the joint SAR team through aerial observation at 4:08 p.m. local time, midway between the Elelim and Poik regions.
Meanwhile, Semuwa Air director Wagus Hidayat said that the company is ready to support the return of the victims’ bodies to their hometowns upon family request.
“The passenger victims hailed from PoikVillage in Yalimo District, while the pilot was from Nabire and the first officer from Puncak Jaya. If the family requests, we are ready to facilitate it,” Hidayat affirmed.
Pilot Hari Permadi and First Officer Levi Murib were the crew of the crashed aircraft. Meanwhile, the four passengers were identified as Bartolomeus (34), Ebeth Halerohon (29), Dormina Halerohon (17), and Kilimputni (20). – BERNAMA-ANTARA
