Relatives bid farewell to SilkAir crash victims

JAKARTA (JP): Grieving relatives burned incense and prayed during a funeral service yesterday in Palembang, South Sumatra, for loved ones killed when a Singaporean airliner crashed in the estuary of the Musi River.

Almost five hundred people attended the funeral at the Kebun Bunga cemetery in Palembang, 60 kilometers upriver from the crash location.

SilkAir flight MI-185 crashed at the estuary of the Musi River on Dec. 19 during a routine flight from Jakarta to Singapore.

All 104 people onboard the Boeing 737-300 died.

Present during yesterday's ceremony were Indonesian Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto, who presided over the funeral, and Singaporean Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan.

Only the remains of six passengers have been identified, with the remains of three -- a passenger from Germany, France and the United States -- flown to their respective countries on Sunday.

The remaining three identified people were buried among 93 coffins at yesterday's ceremony.

Forty-nine of the coffins contained various personal belongings found at the crash site while two were filled with bodily remains. The rest were empty.

Tearful relatives clung to each other and cried out the names of the dead as the remains of the victims were buried on a plot of land specifically prepared for the funeral. Some threw cards containing the names of their lost loved ones into the burial site.

The plane carried 40 Singaporeans, 23 Indonesians, 10 Malaysians, five Americans, five French, four Germans, three British, two Japanese, one Austrian, one Australian, one Indian, one Taiwanese and one Bosnian.

It had a crew of six Singaporeans and a copilot from New Zealand.

Minister Haryanto said after the funeral that the aircraft's tail section would be reconstructed early next month in Curug, West Java.

The United States' Federal Aviation Administration has said that 68 U.S.-registered 737's it had ordered inspected for a possible tail problem had passed all checks.

The FAA ordered the inspection of bolts and screws on horizontal stabilizers after indications that 26 of the fasteners may have been missing from the SilkAir plane before it crashed. (10)