Plane recovery remains elusive

Plane recovery remains elusive

Tarko Sudiarno, The Jakarta Post, Solo

Strong currents and heavy rain continue to hamper efforts to
recover the cockpit voice recorder of a Garuda Boeing 737 that
crash-landed into Bengawan Solo River, Central Java in bad
weather, officials said on Friday.

Due to heavy rain, 10 teams of investigators and a search and
rescue team could not do much on Friday. A strong current has
dragged the plane about 25 meters from its previous location.

Structures erected along both sides of the plane were swept
away by floodwater, a local journalist said from the crash site.

Garuda Indonesia Airlines' Yogyakarta general manager,
Singgih, said in Bengawan Solo on Friday that the teams were
waiting for divers from the marines to arrive and recover the
cockpit voice recorder, located on the belly of the plane, which
is still under water.

"They (the divers) were supposed to be here at 2 p.m. (Friday)
but up until this afternoon there is no sign of them. We'd like
to coordinate the search and recover the cockpit voice recorder
soon," Singgih said.

Onlookers, however, braved heavy rain to stand along the side
of the river to watch events unfold around the plane. Local
residents have begun to operate mini rail cars along the
Delanggu-Jumiring railway line for people wanting to see the
Boeing.

"It's like a carnival here," the local journalist said.

Flight GA-421 with 60 people aboard had a miraculous escape
when the plane came down in Bengawan Solo River in Klaten regency
of Central Java on Wednesday. Only one person, flight attendant
Santi Anggraeni, was killed in the incident.

The plane, which took off from Lombok island, was headed for
Yogyakarta with 54 passengers and six crew members when it made
an emergency landing 30 kilometers northeast of its destination.

Oetardjo Diran, a member of a joint team of experts from the
state National Commission on Transportation Accidents and Garuda
Indonesia, said efforts to salvage the voice recorder were "still
risky".

Officials have not as yet determined why the plane crashed,
but preliminary investigation indicates that engine failure may
have been the cause.

The officials, however, refuse to say when the plane will be
removed from the river. "You know the size of a Boeing plane,
it's not easy to remove it from a river."

Garuda Indonesia announced on Thursday that it would
compensate each of the passengers with Rp 50 million and pay for
all accommodation, hospital treatment and transportation.

It was the second accident in two days involving an
Indonesian-operated Boeing 737. On Monday, several people were
slightly injured when a 737 operated by Lion Airlines crash-
landed immediately after takeoff from Pekanbaru on Sumatra
island.

Two hundred and thirty-four people were killed in September
1997 when a Garuda plane crashed in a village near Medan in North
Sumatra due to poor visibility resulting from thick smoke from
forest fires.