Flight recorder not yet found: Rescue team
Flight recorder not yet found: Rescue team
Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Klaten
Authorities here said on Sunday they would hire a detector from
Singapore to find the flight recorder from a Garuda Airlines
Boeing 737 that crashed in Central Java last week.
"We have our own detector but it cannot be used to search for
the black box because it could risk damaging or eliminating the
records in it," Suryanto, a member of the rescue team, told The
Jakarta Post.
Suryanto said rescue workers tried to contact authorities in
Singapore to help provide them with a detector, but failed to do
so as Sunday was a public holiday.
The plane carrying 54 passengers crash-landed in the Bengawan
Solo river on Wednesday in bad weather near Serenan village in
Juiring subdistrict, Klaten regency, killing one female air
attendant and injuring at least 32 people.
The plane remains floating in the river, although it has
shifted 15 metres downstream due to heavy currents which are also
blamed for the missing flight recorder.
Head of the Transportation Safety National Committee Oetaryo
Diran said the removal of the plane's two wings could take at
least three days, and the entire operation may take a whole week.
The fuel tanks, which now still hold some 4,000 liters of fuel
(equal to 20 drums), have also been partially emptied and
interior fittings, like chairs, glasses and other items, were
also removed from the floating plane.
Diran said efforts were being intensified to raise and remove
the 80-ton plane from the river.
Marine chief captain Achmad Himam said complete evacuation
would still take more time, and all that could be done at the
moment was remove easily transported equipment.
Heavy equipment was on their way to the crash site, he added.
A Navy dive team, who arrived at the scene on Friday, searched
for the black box in the river 100 meters from the crash site.
However, persistently strong currents continued to hamper
their efforts in the murky five-meter deep river.
Rescuers and investigators believed that the black box must
have slipped through some of the large holes in the damaged
fuselage that was almost filled with water and silt.
"The flight recorder might have slipped through these holes
and dropped into the water and was probably dragged downstream,"
said First Lt. Djoko, a diver.
Another team from the Bandung Technology Institute (ITB)
arrived at the scene on Sunday to help investigate the cause of
the crash.
Wednesday's crash-landing was the second accident last week
involving an Indonesia-operated Boeing 737. On Jan. 14, a Boeing
737 operated by Lion Airlines crash landed shortly after takeoff
from Pekanbaru, in Riau province. Several people were injured.