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.