No clues as search for black box continues
JAKARTA (JP): The search continued yesterday for the black box containing flight data of the Garuda Indonesia plane that crashed two weeks ago near Medan, North Sumatra, with the government promising a transparent disclosure of any findings.
"We will be transparent," Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said after attending a ministerial meeting on the economy, finance, and development supervision here yesterday.
Garuda Indonesia's A-300 B-4 Airbus flight number GA-152 crashed on Sept. 26 in Buah Nabar village in Sibolangit subdistrict of the Deli Serdang regency, killing all 234 passengers and crew on board.
After a futile 10-day search, the flight data recorder, known as the black box, has still not been found, according to Oetrajo Diran who heads the team of investigators.
Difficult terrain at the crash site has been cited as the main obstacle for the search team, despite some sophisticated equipment used in the process. A group of experts from Europe also joined the search team which combed a greater area Sunday.
Diran was quoted by Antara as saying it would be up to his team to determine when to call off the search.
The search team included hundreds of soldiers, policemen, air navigation experts, traffic control officials and experts from Airbus Industrie, the French-based jet manufacturer.
If found, the black box will be sent abroad for analysis as Indonesia does not have the facilities to do so.
In the past several months, a large area of Southeast Asia has been blanketed by thick smog caused by forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
The pilot of the aircraft, Rachmo Wiyogo, reportedly told Polonia Airport traffic control tower moments before the crash that he was encountering poor visibility.
Speculation about the cause of the accident has been heightened by the emergence of what is claimed to be a transcript of the final conversation between the pilot and an air traffic controller. The transcript suggests the pilot misunderstood a direction, or was given a wrong direction, and turned the wrong way when approaching Medan.
In a related development in Medan yesterday, 50-year-old Nawari Boro Sitepu, a farmer of the Buah Nabar village, called on the airline to compensate for damages caused by the crash on her two-hectare land.
"I hope Garuda Indonesia will pay attention... it is now difficult for us to cultivate the land," said Sitepu, a mother of four who pays for her childrens' school tuition with proceeds from her durian farm.
Buah Nabar village chief B. Gurusinga said the main water source for the 570 village residents, as well as some portions of the village road, had also been damaged by the crash.
"Our sources of drinking water has been polluted and villagers do not want to use them anymore. They now have to take water from Sembahe and Bingkawan districts which are three kilometers away from our village," Gurusinga said. (aan)