Singapore's detector sought to find plane's black box<\/p>\n
Tarko Sudiarno
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nKlaten<\/p>\n
Authorities here said on Sunday they would hire a detector from
\nSingapore to find the flight recorder of a Garuda Airlines Boeing
\n737 plane that last week made a forced landing into a river in
\nKlaten regency, Central Java.<\/p>\n
"The cockpit voice recorder is not found yet and we are
\nwaiting for a detector from Singapore to investigate its
\nwhereabouts," Suryanto, a member of the rescuer team, told The
\nJakarta Post.<\/p>\n
"We have our own detector but it cannot used to search for the
\nblack box because it could risk damaging or eliminating the
\nrecords in it."<\/p>\n
Suryanto said rescue workers tried to contact authorities in
\nSingapore to help provide them with a detector soon, but failed
\nto do so as Sunday was public holiday.<\/p>\n
The plane carrying 54 passengers crash-landed into the
\nBengawan Solo river on Wednesday in bad weather at Serenan
\nvillage in Juiring subdistrict, killing one female air attendant
\nand injuring at least 32 people.<\/p>\n
The plane remains floating in water, although it has shifted
\n15 metres downstream due to heavy currents, also blamed for the
\nmissing flight recorder.<\/p>\n
The rescue and investigative teams flatted the river's bank on
\nSunday so as to put at edge the ill-fated aircraft. They had also
\nsawed it's broken right wing to lift the engine out of the river.<\/p>\n
Head of the Transportation Safety National Committee Oetaryo
\nDiran the removal of the two wings could need at least three
\ndays, and the entire operation may take a whole week.<\/p>\n
The fuel tanks, which now still hold some 4,000 liters of fuel
\n(equal to 20 drums), have also been emptied and interior
\naccessories, like chairs, glasses and other facilities, were also
\nremoved from the floating plane.<\/p>\n
Diran said efforts were being intensified to raise and remove
\nthe 80-ton plane from the river.<\/p>\n
Marine Chief Captain Achmad Himam said complete evacuation
\nwould still take more time, and what the marines could do now is
\nto remove the light parts and equipment of the airliner.<\/p>\n
Heavy equipment were on their way to the crash site, he added.<\/p>\n
Frogmen from the Marine's Flotila Team, who arrived at the
\nscene on Friday late afternoon, dived in the river at 100 meters
\nfrom the crash site to search for the black box.<\/p>\n
However, the persistently strong current continued to hamper
\ntheir efforts to find the flight recorder in the five-meter deep
\nriver, which was also murky.<\/p>\n
Rescuers and investigators believed that the black box must
\nhave slipped through some of the large holes in the damaged
\nfuselage that was almost filled with water and silt.<\/p>\n
"The flight recorder might have slipped through these holes
\nand dropped into the water and was probably dragged downstream,"
\nsaid First Lt. Tek Djoko, a member of the frogmen team.<\/p>\n
Another team from the state Bandung Technology Institute (ITB)
\narrived at the scene on Sunday to help develop the investigations
\ninto the cause of the crash.<\/p>\n
Wednesday's crash-landing was the second accident last week
\ninvolving an Indonesia-operated Boeing 737. On Jan. 14, a Boeing
\n737 operated by Lion Airline crash landed shortly after takeoff
\nfrom Pekanbaru, in Riau province. Several people were injured.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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