Vehicle Containing Body at Juanda Airport Suspected to Be Bangkalan Regency Official Car

A black Toyota Innova found containing a woman’s body in the car park of Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport is suspected to be an official vehicle belonging to the Bangkalan Regency Government, East Java. The vehicle, believed to be a government car from the Madura Island regency, bears red number plates with the registration M 1090 GP. The discovery of the body caused a stir at the airport and prompted an immediate response from police and the Basarnas rescue team to conduct an evacuation. “The preliminary suspicion is that it is an official car of the Bangkalan Regency Government,” a police officer at the scene said on Wednesday (24/6). As of the time of writing, CNNIndonesia.com has not received an official statement from the Bangkalan Regency Government.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday afternoon, the evacuation process did not proceed smoothly. The Basarnas team deployed to the location faced difficulties due to the limited space inside the vehicle cabin. Gani, the Basarnas Commander leading the evacuation, said his team received the information around midday and immediately moved to the location. “We got the info around 12.00, and we immediately came here,” Gani said. Upon arrival, the Basarnas team could not act straight away. They had to wait for coordination with the police before being allowed to access the vehicle. “We then waited for the Inafis team and the police sector before we could gain access, because an identification process was needed,” Gani explained. He noted that the evacuation took more than twenty minutes due to the cramped physical conditions inside the cabin. “The difficulty level for the evacuation was because it was quite narrow inside a car cabin, so access was what made it quite difficult for us. The evacuation process took approximately 25 to 30 minutes,” he said.

According to Gani, the woman’s body was found in the front left seat, or the front passenger seat. The condition of the body when found was already decomposing, with fluids leaking from the corpse, indicating the victim had died several days before the discovery. “It was decomposing and there was fluid coming out,” Gani stated. The identity of the victim and the cause of death remain under investigation. Police have not yet provided an official statement regarding the motive or the full chronology of the incident.

The woman’s body was first discovered by a group of online taxi drivers stationed at Juanda Airport on Wednesday afternoon. They became suspicious because the car was leaking an unusual fluid from its underside. “At 11.30 WIB, my Grab driver friends who are stationed here, one of them saw a car leaking abnormal fluid, like diesel or radiator water,” said a witness, Bagus Tri, at the scene. Upon looking through the window, the witness saw a woman inside the car who was believed to be already dead. The victim was in a seated position, leaning back in the front left seat. Bagus said the body appeared swollen, was wearing a yellow top and a hijab, and the woman’s stomach also looked enlarged. “My friend who saw it immediately shouted, and the other friends ran over and when they looked, it turned out there was a person, in the front left seat, next to the driver, sitting reclined, her condition was swollen, a woman wearing a hijab and a yellow top,” he said. The online taxi drivers who found the body immediately called airport security officers. Bagus said he did not know exactly how long the car had been parked in the Juanda Airport area, but information from a friend suggested the vehicle had been there for four days. “Initially, we didn’t notice it at all. Only this morning. But a friend said it might have been four days,” he said.

Meanwhile, Juanda International Airport General Manager Muhammad Tohir said the airport management supports the law enforcement investigation into the discovery of the woman’s body in the parked car in the Terminal 1 car park area. “Juanda Airport management fully supports the investigation process being carried out by the authorities,” he stated.