Search for SilkAir remains extended
By Budiman Moerdijat
PALEMBANG, South Sumatra (JP): The search for the remains of the SilkAir MI-185 airplane which was due to end today has been extended for another week as investigators called in an excavator to dig-up a newly detected hole suspected to be the primary impact point in the Musi River.
The sonar equipment from KRI Fatahillah yesterday located a 25 meter x 60 meter indent in the riverbed which investigators suspect could be the point of impact where the plane crashed last week.
The three-meter deep cut crosses the direction of the river horizontally.
The Commander for the Sea Defense of the Western Indonesia Fleet Rear Adm. Rosyihan Arsyad said heavy equipment such as an excavator would be brought in to help lift possible wreckage.
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said here Wednesday evening that search operations would be extended for another week.
"The search will continue and it is our first priority," Haryanto told a press conference at the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport.
The SilkAir Boeing 737-300 plunged into an estuary of the Musi River on Dec. 19, halfway between Jakarta and Singapore.
All 104 passengers and crew are believed dead.
So far an intensive search has recovered very little. No intact bodies have been found and neither the main fuselage nor the flight data and voice recorder, known as the black box, have been found.
The cause of the crash is as yet unknown but it is believed the plane exploded before crashing into the river as claimed by witnesses.
But chief crash investigator, Indonesia's Oetarjo Diran, said Wednesday his preliminary observation does not support suggestions that the plane exploded in midair.
"There is no indication that there was an explosion (before the crash)," Diran told journalists.
"It appears the total disintegration took place when the plane hit the water," he added.
Diran said that there were plane fragments which fell before the crash and investigators would seek an explanation for this.
He confirmed that several fragments fell on land more than three kilometers away from the center of the crash site in the river's estuary.
"As I said earlier (Tuesday) it is called a progressive structural disintegration," said Diran, who also chairs Indonesia's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission.
A statement issued yesterday evening said an air sweep northwest of the crash site had spotted a yellow object which is suspected to be the emergency chute.
The emergency chute is usually attached to the emergency door of the aircraft.
Singapore's Education and Second Defense Minister Theo Chee Hean, who visited the crash site yesterday morning, admitted the difficult environment was hampering search operations.
"Divers are actually searching by feet... The current is very strong and there is a lot of silt," he told reporters.
"(Although) the rescuers have found several hundred pieces of plane wreckage, the largest pieces are only about the size of two (small) tables," he said.
He said an estimated one thousand rescuers are involved in the operation, including 700 Indonesians and 300 Singaporeans. (10)