Search efforts bear little fruit

Search efforts bear little fruit

JAKARTA (JP): A minesweeper and sonar equipment will be used
today to search for the submerged fuselage of the SilkAir
airplane which crashed in South Sumatra, after efforts by divers
over the weekend only recovered body parts and fragments from the
wreckage.

"The search today bore little fruit," said Minister of
Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto who is personally overseeing
the search in Sungsang, South Sumatra.

Speaking to journalists in a televised broadcast yesterday,
Haryanto said that sonar equipment and minesweepers would likely
been called in today to give divers a break from their exhaustive
search.

Only a wing tip and the rudder have been found along with
small fragments from the plane.

Although the 97 passengers and seven crew members of the
fateful flight have not all been declared dead, hopes of their
survival are quickly fading as search teams have only been
successful in locating detached body parts.

A SilkAir Boeing 737-300, flight number MI-185, crashed at the
estuary of the Musi River, near Sungsang village, north of
Palembang Friday.

Officials refuse to speculate on the cause of the crash but
witnesses, including a police officer, claim to have seen the
plane explode in midair.

SilkAir has said the pilot made no distress calls.

Divers probing the Musi River earlier said the fuselage was
stuck on the bottom of the river.

But when a large crane mounted onto a barge was brought in too
pull it out, divers could not locate the fuselage.

"It is likely that the fuselage may have been swept away by
the strong current," Haryanto said.

Muddy waters and strong currents have limited divers ability
to work underwater.

An Indonesia minesweeper brought in from Surabaya and sonar
equipment from Singapore is ready, Haryanto added.

Bodies

More body parts and personal items were found by divers
yesterday. Not a single intact body has been discovered.

"Shards of bodies which we have been wrapped in plastic are a
part of a hand, skin, intestines, liver and flesh," Antara quoted
Musthopa, an officer from the South Sumatra Sea Police, as
describing in graphic detail yesterday.

Personal items such as identity cards, passports, a belt, a
batik shirt and a mukenah, a female Moslem dress for prayer, have
also been found.

In Singapore, SilkAir officials claim that the plane which
crashed had an excellent maintenance record and underwent a
thorough check just 10 days earlier.

Rick Clements, SilkAir's senior public affairs manager, was
quoted by AFP as saying that the plane was "a well-maintained
aircraft with a clean bill of health".

The plane was just 10-months old, leased and delivered in
February 1997 to SilkAir which is a fully owned subsidiary of
Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Clements added that the plane underwent three maintenance
checks required of the plane after every 800 hours of flying
time.

Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Tony
Tan vowed that his government would pursue a thorough
investigation.

"We must get to the bottom of this to find out what is the
cause," Tan said in a news briefing.

According to Chan Yat, spokesman of the Civil Aviation
Authority of Singapore (CAAS), there are 464 Singapore military,
police, civil defense, medical, aviation officials and SilkAir
staff working on the salvage operation.

Chan also revealed that two Boeing investigators have been at
the site since Saturday.

Two representatives of the United States Federal Aviation
Administration were due to arrive yesterday evening, he said
adding that another two members of the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are also set to arrive today.

Reuters reported from Washington that the team would include
an explosives expert.

But an NTSB spokesman said the inclusion of an explosives
expert was routine.

"It is routine to send investigators with a wide range of
specialities, including a person with a fire and explosives
background," NTSB spokesman Patrick Cariseo said.

Friday's crash came just three months after a Garuda Indonesia
Airbus crashed near Medan, North Sumatra, killing all 234 on
board.

President Soeharto conveyed his condolences Saturday to all
the relatives of victims of flight MI-185.

Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said the head of state
also instructed the local administration and people to help
rescue workers handle victims of the crash.

"The President has also received a preliminary report from
Transportation Minister Haryanto Dhanutirto about the incident,"
Moerdiono said.

Moerdiono said the President had also sent his condolences to
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong who had expressed his
condolences a day earlier. (mds)