SilkAir search extended for three days
JAKARTA (JP): The search for the remains of the SilkAir MI-185 airplane which was due to end yesterday has been extended for another three days to allow recently brought in dredgers to complete their work.
"Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto, through the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, Commodore Harinto, instructed the operation to be extended until Monday," Commander of the Palembang Air Force Base Lt. Col. Yanuwardi told The Jakarta Post by phone.
He said the operation was extended as a dredger named Moshasi sent by the Singaporean government arrived at the crash site only Wednesday and it had proved successful in finding some remains of the plane.
The SilkAir Boeing 737-300 crashed into the Musi River, South Sumatra, on Dec. 19 on a flight from Jakarta to Singapore. All 104 passengers and crew on board were killed.
The plane was flying at its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet (10,600 meters) in clear weather. Ground control received no distress calls.
This has led to speculation of a sudden, massive mechanical failure or perhaps a bomb, although no hard evidence of either has been revealed.
Witnesses claim to have seen the plane explode in midair.
SilkAir is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines.
Commander of the Western Fleet's security task force Commodore Rosihan Arsyad said yesterday that the plane likely exploded in pieces as two weeks of joint search operations between Singapore and Indonesia have recovered only small fragments of the plane.
"Just imagine such a big plane crashing to earth at a velocity of 900 kilometers per hour," Rosihan on the Indonesian navy ship KRI Teluk Gilimanuk was quoted by Antara as saying yesterday.
He said rescuers hoped to find more significant findings as the sonar equipment from KRI Fatahillah last week located a 25 meter x 60 meter indent in the riverbed which investigators suspect could be the location of the plane's fuselage.
"But we became quite sad after the dredger found the fuselage was not there," Rosihan said.
The Moshasi only found fragments of the plane's cockpit and tail which had been crushed to pieces.
The dredger can rake up to 18 cubic meters of mud from a depth of 30 meters, Arsyad said, adding that Singapore sent 31 personnel to man the dredger.
Working together with the dredger is an Indonesian search and rescue team which is expected to collect, clean up and record the findings of the dredger.
The Indonesian team consists of 30 personnel from the Navy, Army, Air Force and Police, Arsyad said.
According to Arsyad, the dredging by the Singaporean vessel is expected to take four days.
One of the most sought after objects will be the cockpit voice recorder.
Rescue teams last week recovered the flight data recorder (FDR), but investigators warn that both items of the blackbox must be discovered if investigations can become conclusive.
The FDR arrived in Washington Tuesday for examination by U.S. safety experts.
U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman Jamie Finch was quoted by Reuters in Washington as saying that the recorder was being examined in the board's laboratory.
Only about 10 percent of the plane has been recovered but the discovery of the flight data recorder was regarded as a breakthrough.
No bodies have been recovered intact. Earlier in the search divers found some body fragments which are being examined by forensic experts to determine if identification can be made.
In Palembang, Antara yesterday reported that the location for the mass burial had yet to be decided as authorities still need to confirm the matter with relatives of the crash victims.
Minister Haryanto said last week the remains would be buried in Palembang or near the crash site at the nearby fishing village of Sungsang, about 65 kilometers north of Palembang. (10)