Sacking of Lion Air technical bosses ordered
Indonesian officials were last night still trying to confirm the location of the fuselage of Lion Air Flight JT610.
Indonesian officials were last night still trying to confirm the location of the fuselage of Lion Air Flight JT610 that crashed into the Java Sea with 189 people on board, after ships equipped with sonar detected a 16m-long object in the search area where the two-month-old Boeing 737 aircraft is suspected to have come down.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi yesterday ordered the removal of Lion Air’s technical director and several technicians linked to Monday’s crash, as Boeing officials were to meet in Jakarta with Lion Air management.
The government has ordered an immediate inspection of all Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Lion and national carrier Garuda, and last night said it would consider grounding the aircraft if it uncovered evidence of specific issues in that model.
Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Commission will meet Boeing officials today.
NTSC chief Soerjanto Tjahjono said pings from JT610’s underwater locator were detected on Tuesday in 32m-deep waters and a subsequent sonar scan picked up an object suspected to be at least part of the fuselage.
Divers and remote-operated vehicles had been deployed to verify whether it was the remains of the 6.10am flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, in Bangka Belitung province, which lost contact with ground staff 13 minutes into its 70-minute journey.
“We hope that the black box is not too far away from the main wreck,” Mr Soerjanto said last night. “We suspect the majority of victims are still trapped inside the fuselage.”
National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) director Didi Hamzar said the object was located between the suspected crash site and Tanjung Pakis beach, 65km west of Jakarta.
Monday’s accident has resurrected fears over the country’s air safety. It also raised fresh concerns over Boeing’s 737 Max 8 aircraft, whose release was temporarily suspended days before its first commercial delivery in May last year because of an engine issue.
Mr Soerjanto said Boeing was obliged to help in the investigation. “We want their expertise. They know the plane better than anyone. The plane has many onboard computers and algorithms which may not be in the manuals.”
Lion Air has admitted the plane that crashed on Monday had an unspecified technical issue the night before but said it was “resolved according to procedure”.
A search and rescue effort — involving 800 personnel, six helicopters, four ships and 44 boats — has so far recovered debris and 48 body bags of human remains.
Jakarta Police Hospital director Musyafak said yesterday they were close to identifying only one of the 189 on board — a child of three or four. There was one child and two infants on JT610.
“It is hard because so far only body parts have been recovered, so the identification process relies heavily on DNA testing,” Lieutenant Musyafak said. “We haven’t found an intact finger or hand so we can’t run a fingerprint test.
“We haven’t found body parts with rings or jewelleries or identifiable tattoos.”
Australia, which helped Indonesia set up its Disaster Victim Identification unit after the 2002 Bali bombing, has offered to help identify the dead.
DVI chief Lisda Cancer said the unit was “coping” but did not rule out accepting Australian help following the retrieval of the fuselage.
Outside the hospital where he had given DNA, Epi Syamsul Komar said he wanted something of his son, Muhammad Ravi Andrian, to bury and “would accept whatever condition he is in”.
The 24-year-old clerk, who worked in Pangkal Pinang, was in Jakarta to watch Indonesia’s under-19s play Japan and left his departure until the last minute. “I spoke to him Sunday and asked, ‘Aren’t you going to be late for work if you take the 6.10am flight? Why not take the Sunday evening flight?’ ” Syamsul said yesterday.
“He said: ‘Don’t worry, Dad, I’ll get to work on time’.”
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