Lion Air JT610: Joko Widodo orders 24-hour search and rescue effort to recover remains of 189 people
The Lion Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea yesterday was in the air for only 2 to 3 minutes before the pilot sent a Mayday call.
The Lion Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea yesterday with 189 people on board was in the air for only two to three minutes before the pilot sent a Mayday call asking to return to base
AirNav president director Novie Riyanto told repoters: “We received the request from the pilot to return to base. The air traffic controller gave permission to return, and there is a recording of it.”
However Mr Riyanto added, he didn’t know why the pilot, Bhavye Suneja, sent the request.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo last night ordered a 24-hour search and rescue effort to recover the remains of the crew and passengers - including three young children - believed to have died when Flight JT610 crashed early Tuesday.
The new Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft plunged into waters off the coast of west Java in sunny conditions just after 6.30am yesterday, 13 minutes into a one hour and ten minute flight from Soekarno Hatta Airport and soon after the pilot requested permission to turn back.
The crash has sparked fresh concerns over Indonesia’s aviation safety record, after Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait admitted yesterday a “technical issue” with the same months-old aircraft was reported during a flight from Bali to Jakarta a day earlier.
But Mr Sirait insisted the issue was resolved “according to procedure” and the plane was deemed airworthy.
Transport safety officials said yesterday the cause of the crash remained a “big question”, but revealed the plane’s emergency local transmitter beacon did not emit a distress signal when it made its sharp descent, even though it was certified as working up until August 2019.
The plane was carrying 178 adult passengers, one child, two babies and eight crew.
Search and rescue officials said last night they held little hope of finding any survivors after recovering only body parts so far.
Relatives have been asked to bring medical records, diplomas with fingerprints, or recent photo showing specific characteristics or birthmarks to east Jakarta’s police hospital to help in the difficult identification process.
President Jokowi, as he is widely known, said last night he had ordered the Indonesian police and military, transport ministry officials and the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) to work throughout the night “to speed up the search, to find the main wreckage”, which is believed to lie in waters up to 40 metres deep around 15km off the coast of West Java’s Karawang port.
“I convey deep sorrow for the disaster that happened this morning,” he said, after arriving back in Jakarta from an international oceans conference in Bali.
“We all know the feeling of passengers waiting for information from Basarnas.”
The crash, likely to be one of the country’s worst aviation disasters in more than two decades, comes a month after thousands of people were killed when a powerful earthquake and tsunami struck central Sulawesi.
Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Gary Quinlan, said in a Twitter post that the embassy was “making inquiries to determine if any Australians are affected” by the tragedy.
However a passenger list released last night showed there were only two foreigners on board -the Indian captain and an Italian passenger.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Smart Traveler alert later said government officials and contractors would not be allowed to fly with Lion Air until the cause of the crash was determined.
Basarnas chief Muhammad Syaugi said his agency was alerted at 6.50am by Air Traffic Control that the plane was missing and immediately sent three rescue boats and a helicopter to the crash site, around 65km from Jakarta and 11 nautical miles from Karawang Port in Bekasi, west Java.
Pictures released by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency early yesterday showed search and rescue officers sifting through debris, including personal items such as mangled mobile phones, sneakers, and carry-on bags.
“As we went to the location we found wreckage from the plane,” Mr Syaugi confirmed at a morning press conference. “We found life vests, we found hand phones and debris, two nautical miles from the (last known) coordinates.”
Among the passengers were as many as 40 government officials from the Indonesian ministry of finance, the Supreme Audit Agency and the Bangka Belitung provincial administration.
The pristine beaches on the former tin mining island of Belitung, which lent its name to Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, are being heavily promoted by the Indonesian government as one of ten alternative tourist destinations to the overcrowded Bali.
At Soekarno Hatta’s ageing Terminal One airport, frantic families - many of them in tears -milled around the temporary crisis centre set up by Lion Air.
“We are hoping for the best,” one relative, who asked not to be named, said as he comforted his weeping wife. “We surrender to God.”
Another, Endo Prabowo, told The Australian his 30-year-old daughter Christi had taken the flight back to Pangkal Pinang, where she works for an air navigation company, after a weekend meeting in Jakarta.
“I was hoping there was still a chance for survival,” the distraught father said.
National Transportation Safety Agency chief Soerjanto Tjahjono said the Boeing aircraft had only joined the Lion Air fleet in August, had done just 800 flight hours, and that the weather was sunny where it went down.
It is the first reported accident involving the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, a more fuel-efficient version of Boeing’s single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017.
Lion Air said Captain Bhavye Suneja and his co-pilot Harvino had more than 11,000 flying hours between them and that the plane was “deemed airworthy”.
“Lion Air is saddened by this incident and will work together with related institutions and everyone involved in this incident,” it said.
All Indonesian carriers were black-listed by the EU Air Safety List in 2007 because of the country’s poor air safety record. The ban was only fully lifted in July this year.
Additional reporting: Astari Yanuarti
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