Mon, 21 Jan 2002

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.