A ceremony to hand over the flight data recorder of the crashed Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182 to the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) (Photo: VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia'sNational Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) on January 18 decided to extendthe search for the bodies of passengers and debris of the crashed Sriwijaya AirFlight SJ-182 for another three days.
The decision was made after a meetingbetween Basarnas and the Ministry of Transportation, the National Committee forTransportation Safety (KNKT), the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team andother relevant parties, said Basarnas chief Vice Marshal Bagus Puruhito.
During the extended search operation,Basarnas will evaluate its daily findings to assess the outcome, effectiveness,and obstacles in the field, he informed.
In addition, it will also reassessdevelopments to decide further steps in the search operation, he said.
On January 15, Basarnas had extended thesearch operation by three days following a week long search for victims anddebris of the Sriwijaya Air plane, which had crashed in the waters off SeribuIslands on January 9.
The second black box that contains theflight’s cockpit voice recorder has yet to be retrieved. Meanwhile, the divingteam continued to find body parts of the ill-fated plane's passengers.
The Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182 had lostcontact shortly after take-off. It had departed from Jakarta and was headed toPontianak. The plane had 50 passengers and 12 crew members on board.
The incident is the deadliest aviationaccident in Indonesia after the crash of Lion Air’s Boeing 737 MAX into Javasea which claimed the lives of 189 passengers and crewmembers in 2018./.
