Search team fails to locate missing glider in Puncak
Search team fails to locate missing glider in Puncak
BOGOR (JP): Rescuers on Friday still failed to trace the
whereabouts of a 17-year-old paraglider who went missing after
being surprised by storms while flying in foggy skies in the
popular mountainous resort of Puncak on Tuesday afternoon.
A senior rescue team member, Gendon Subandono, said the joint
team members, including Air Force personnel deployed with two
helicopters, had in the past three days carefully combed the area
within the radius of some two kilometers from the spot where
paraglider Dadang Suharya was last seen by his colleagues.
"But the search still ended fruitlessly," said Gendon, who is
deputy chairman of the Association of Indonesian Hand Gliders
(PLGI), in conversation with The Jakarta Post at the rescue
team's homebase, some 400 meters from the paraglider's launching
pad.
He blamed the area's hilly surface and the unfriendly weather
for the rescuers' difficult mission.
"The mountain slope is steep. What's more, the continuous
presence of thick fog in this area has limited our vision,"
Gendon added.
He said that members of the search and rescue team, which also
included police personnel, members of University Student Nature
Lovers and local paragliders, had difficulty estimating the
possible direction as to where Dadang was dragged by the storm.
"The wind was very strong at that time and we, therefore, have
to widen the area to be searched," he added.
Dozens of the rescuers explored every inch of the ground,
which consisted mainly of tea plantations and small trees. Until
Friday morning, they were supported by two helicopters from the
Atang Senjaya Air Force field in Bogor.
The launching pad used by the paragliders is a 20-meter by 20-
meter square field located on top of a hill in the middle of
Gunung Mas Plantation in Puncak, a favorite cool-weather retreat
for many Jakartans.
Besides members of local paragliding clubs, domestic and
foreign tourists are often seen using the pad to fly their
gliders.
To the front of the pad, paragliders enjoy views of vast tea
plantations, the roofs of houses and the busy and winding Jl.
Raya Puncak.
At a distance, Geger Benteng mountain and the thick forest at
the Gede Mountain can be seen.
As usual
According to the elder brother of the victim, Nanang Sunarya,
19, Dadang and another athlete, Ade Basoni, were flying as usual
on Tuesday.
"We went together to the launching pad driving in a Kijang
van.
Ade started to fly around 11.30 a.m and was followed by Dadang
minutes after," he recalled.
Nanang, a second year student at Economic Vocational Senior
High School Cipayung in Megamendung district, said the weather
was actually fine in the beginning when the two young men took
flight.
"But right after Dadang took off, a strong wind came from the
back of the hill and suddenly trapped him," he said.
A street vendor, Ujang Jujun, admitted that thick fog had
gripped the area since Tuesday.
Nanang added that Ade was finally able to safely perform an
emergency landing at a nearby landing pad.
"I contacted Dadang via a walkie-talkie and warned him to be
calm, but I got no response at all," he recalled.
According to the standard regulations at the site, every
paraglider is equipped with radio equipment.
He said the thick fog followed by strong winds made it
impossible to locate the direction his brother traveled.
"The last time I saw him, he was at around 100 meters above
the ground," he said, adding that he rushed to inform his family
and surrounding dwellers after the incident.
He said Dadang, also his classmate, has been a keen
paragliding hobbyist for 18 months.
Four of the five children in the family, Nanang said, enjoy
the hobby. (asa)