High Wave, SAR Team Temporarily Halts Search For Sriwijaya Air SJ-182

JAKARTA - The joint SAR team has temporarily stopped the search for victims and materials of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft at the location of the crash or last known position (LKP) due to high waves.

This was confirmed by the Deputy for Energy and Potential Development of SAR Basarnas, Abdul Haris Achadi. Haris said, initially the KM Karna ship departed for the search location from JICT 2 pier since 09.30 WIB today.

KM Karna brings a rescue team, divers, medical team, and media crew. After sailing for about 20 minutes, KM Karna turned around because he received news that the sea at the search location was experiencing high waves.

"And just until the mouth of the pond (the boundary between the pier and the high seas), we have to turn right because we get information on wave height at the location of up to 2.5 meters," said Haris at the JICT 2 Integrated Command Post, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Wednesday, January 13th.

In fact, said Haris, KM Karna also had time to face waves of up to 1.5 meters at the border of the pier and the high seas.

Then, Haris said, currently a number of ships in LKP had also stopped their search operations due to high waves and bad weather.

"At the location there are still Basarnas ships. There are several ships that do not continue (search) but are on standby and temporarily off while we see the weather," he said.

For information, the search force for Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 on the fifth day involved 3,300 joint personnel, both those involved in the field and other handling posts.

Then, there were 54 defense equipment ships that were deployed in the last known position (LKP) of the plane crash. Small marine vehicles such as ribs, searider, rubber boats and jetski kurleb were sent down by 20 pieces.

In the air line, there are 13 monitoring aircraft ready to be flown. While on the ground, there were 30 ambulances on standby at the JICT II Command Post to bring the findings related to the victim.