REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KARAWANG -- The members of joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team were deployed in two areas to search for the victims of the crashed Lion Air JT 610 aircraft in the waters of Tanjung Karawang, Karawang District, West Java. The head of the Bandung SAR Team, Deden Ridwansyah, stated that on the fourth day, the search was divided into two sectors to sweep the floor of the sea.
This is in accordance with the conditions of waves and sea breezes. For the first sector, the team conducted a sweep towards the West, from Tanjungpakis Beach to Muara Bungin Karawang. Then in the second sector, the team conducted a sweep to the East, from Tanjungpakis Beach in Karawang to the waters of Subang.
"There is a shift in the coordinate points from the previous 10 nautical miles to 15 nautical miles east of Subang waters," he noted in Karawang on Thursday.
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He added that on the fourth day, the number of joint personnel deployed to the two sectors reached 58 people. The SAR team sent 56 body bags to the Radem Said Sukanto Police Hospital in East Jakarta until Oct 31, 2018.
The last bag arrived at Tanjung Priok Seaport's forensic medical installation facility on Wednesday at 9:01 p.m. local time and was taken to the police hospital.
Until Wednesday evening, the hospital's forensic specialists had checked the contents of 46 body bags, two days following the accident. So far, only one body has been identified, which was Jannatun Cintya Dewi, 24, from East Java. Dewi's body was planned to be taken to her hometown on Thursday morning.
The Lion Air plane, bearing flight number JT610 and en route to Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung Province, crashed some 15 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on Monday morning. The aircraft departed from Jakarta at 6:20 a.m. local time and was scheduled to arrive in Pangkalpinang at 7:05 a.m. local time, according to the Depati Amir Airport authority in Pangkalpinang.
Before it lost contact, the aircraft had sought permission to return to Jakarta due to a problem. The aircraft carried 178 adult passengers, three infants, six crew members, a pilot of Indian nationality, and a co-pilot.
Among the aircraft's passengers were an Italian national, tens of civil servants from the Finance Ministry and the Supreme Audit Agency, six legislators of Bangka Belitung, and three police officers.
The plane's wreckage and several body parts were found floating in the sea not far from Jakarta on Monday, but there were no survivors.
A total of 44 divers have been deployed to look for bodies of the victims. The authorities have also deployed 15 boats and four sonar boats to join the evacuation operation.