Relatives bid farewell to SilkAir crash victims
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)