Lion Air Plane Tragedy: Indonesia Search and Rescue Agency Team Aims to Recover Black Boxes From Plane Crash Site

Flight JT610 lost altitude and disappeared from the radars 13 minutes after take-off on Monday at 6.20 a.m, from the Jakarta airport. The fight was bound to Pangkal Pinang, on the island of Bangka.

Published: October 30, 2018 12:51 PM IST

By India.com News Desk | Edited by Kanimozhi Sudhakar

Lion Air Plane Tragedy: Indonesia Search and Rescue Agency Team Aims to Recover Black Boxes From Plane Crash Site
National Search And Rescue Agency Republic of Indonesia. Image Source: BASARNA'S Twitter Handle

Jakarta: Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency teams focused their efforts on recovering the black boxes of the Lion Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea on Monday.

A spokesperson for the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Yusuf Latif told Efe news, “We have not yet found (the black boxes). There is very little chance that there will be any survivors.”

Over 100 rescue personnel were deployed at the site where the Boeing-737 MAX crashed into the sea. The search team recovered a number of bodies on Monday night, said Musyafak, the director of the capital’s police hospital in Kramat Jati. So far, rescue teams have retrieved 24 bags containing body parts. According to a report by CNN, police stated that the bags containing the body parts of the plane crash victims were sent to a local hospital for post-mortem.

Police also said that DNA samples were taken from 132 family members of the passengers on board to help with the identification. However, the process could be tedious as the bodies of the deceased were not intact and each bag could contain the remains of more than one person.

The team has also filled another 14 bags with debris including shoes, clothing, a wallet, handbags, mobile phones, ID cards and driving licences.

Flight JT610 lost altitude and disappeared from the radars 13 minutes after take-off on Monday at 6.20 a.m, from the Jakarta airport. The fight was bound to Pangkal Pinang, on the island of Bangka. Before the plane crash occurred, Indian pilot, Bhavye Suneja had sought permission to return to the Indonesian airport. However, the pilot had not sent an emergency signal, stated officials.

Danang told Efe news that the total number of people on board were 189, one more than the figure initially stated by the authorities. This includes 178 adult passengers, one child, two infants, two pilots and six cabin crew.

Found in 1999, Lion Air is Indonesia’s largest low-cost airline. Lion Air has encountered an accident in 2004 in the city of Solo, which claimed the lives of 25 people.

(With Agency inputs)

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