Rescuers again halt search for missing Cessna

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Majalengka, West Java

A team searching for a downed Cessna on the slopes of Mount Ciremai in West Java, has denied earlier reports the plane and its three occupants had been found and again called off the search.

The team first called off its nearly-two week search for the training aircraft in Majalengka regency on Sunday but resumed the search Monday after a villager claimed he had seen a propeller.

National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) team coordinator Agus Sukarno dismissed reports the plane and the bodies of its pilot and two cadets had been located in the hilly Sadarehe area.

"What it true is that we have found a suspected location where the plane crashed. But after searching for three days ... we have continued not to find the missing aircraft," Agus said.

He said the rescuers could resume the mission if new information came to light, adding that the further search was left to volunteers.

"It is in line with Government Regulation No. 12/2000," Agus said without elaborating further.

A similar denial was also made by Basarnas chairman Yayun Riyanto, who said the rescuers, who had been hampered by bad weather, were never told of the missing plane being found.

"I need to make it clear that what I had said to you was that we only found a suspected location," he added.

He said the suspected location was discovered after he received information from Kuningan military command chief Lt. Col. Harry Suharyanto and Cirebon Airport chief Dadang Ekasmana.

"Based on the information, I then ordered the resumption of the search and rescue operation on Monday," Yayun said.

Team member Edi Mulyadi, a flight engineer of national carrier PT Garuda Indonesia, concurred, saying he strongly believed that he saw what seemed to be the plane's wreckage in the Sadarehe area in Payung village.

"I saw something white there, which resembled an airplane propeller. My colleague in the search, Trisnandi, also saw a similar thing," he told journalists on Wednesday.

The Deraya Flying School Cessna went missing on Feb. 7 on a flight from Semarang, Central Java, to Jakarta. It was piloted by Berti F. Nausina, 33, along with students Gagak Eskandaria, 21, and Erwin Bunadir, 23.