Black box search continues in the air

MEDAN, North Sumatra (JP): The search for the illusive black box of the ill-fated Garuda Indonesia plane that crashed on Friday took to the skies yesterday as investigators retraced the final approach of the plane by helicopter.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission led by Oetrajo Diran boarded a Pelita Air Service helicopter and viewed the crash site from above.

But the search failed to locate the flight data and cockpit voice recorder, commonly referred to as the black box.

Upon returning to his hotel in Medan, Diran, still wearing a muddy pair of boots, went directly to his room and shunned away all questions from journalists.

Flight GA-152 from Jakarta crashed minutes before it was to land at Medan's Polonia Airport. All 234 aboard the Airbus A-300- B4 perished.

There has been no explanation on the cause of the crash but speculation has been growing the past few days that it may have been a result of human error.

A widely circulated transcript of the supposed final conversation between the pilot and control tower at Polonia indicates that there was some confusion on the heading the plane should have taken.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said Tuesday that the government would study the validity of the transcript adding that thus far there had been no official release of a transcript.

It is still unknown who circulated the controversial transcript.

All eyes are now focused on the black box which could confirm or deny whether the crash was a result of human error.

The head of the Ministry of Transportation's provincial office, Ashwin Harahap, denied yesterday that his office had released a copy of the conversation between the control tower and the pilot.

Ashwin also told The Jakarta Post that despite extensive efforts, the black box was still missing.

He said the use of a helicopter to search the site of the crash was a direct request from Diran.

At the crash site, near Buah Nadar village, search teams tried to bring in heavy equipment yesterday to help rummage through the wreckage of the plane.

While all the bodies have been evacuated, much of the plane's wreckage remains scattered in a wide area.

Separately, North Sumatra Police spokesman Lt. Col. Amrin Karim denied reports that psychics were being employed to help find the black box.

He maintained that Mobile Brigade officers were still the primary personnel in the search.

But if there were psychics assisting, it was merely through people's individual initiative, he said.

"We never asked for psychics," he asserted. (10/21)