Rescuers again halt search for missing Cessna
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.