PLN Employee Ricko At First Bought A NAM Air Ticket But Suddenly He Was Transferred To A Sriwijaya SJ-182 Plane

ILLUSTRATION / Sriwijaya Air Aircraft (ANTARA)

MAKASSAR - PLN employee Ricko Damanius Mahulette was a passenger on the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane which crashed in the Thousand Islands, Jakarta. At first Ricko bought tickets for NAM Air, a subsidiary of Sriwijaya Air, but suddenly the flight was diverted to a Sriwijaya SJ-182 plane.

"I want to go with NAM Air at 7 am but get information, email and sms are transferred to Sriwijaya. It departed at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, we don't know why it got like that (it was transferred), we thought it was safe, ”said Ricko's father, Damianus Mahulette, quoted from Metro TV broadcast, Sunday, January 10 in the morning.

Ricko with his wife and child are at his residence in Makassar. However Ricko served as a PLN employee in Pontianak.

“Suddenly his wife called, he was delayed and left for Pontianak. We thought we had arrived, when the contact was lost on Sriwijaya's social media, I asked his wife for the same flight number that my son's ticket bought, "said Ricko's father.

Ricko is on leave to return to Makassar. But Ricko went to Jakarta to take care of certificates at the PLN head office in Jakarta.

"He took leave here with his wife and child, then after that he wanted to go to Pontianak, work at PLN (because) there was a certificate to be taken at PLN Jakarta, after that, the management was finished, he wanted to go back to Pontianak," said Ricko's father.

PLN employee Ricko Damanius Mahulette, a Sriwijaya Air passenger SJ-182 (Screenshot via Metro TV)

The family is now waiting for the development of the search process. Family representatives will depart from Makassar to Jakarta to provide the necessary data at the Sriwijaya Air crisis center post.

"We are waiting and hoping that if there is information from Sriwiaya, there will be certainty for the family that there may be a discussion that they can meet regardless of the circumstances," continued Ricko's father.

Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft took off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport, at 14:36 WIB, Saturday, January 9. One minute later the plane to Pontianak was at an altitude of 1,700 feet and was allowed to rise to an altitude of 29 thousand feet following instrument standards.

"At 14:40 Sriwijaya did not go to 075 degrees but to the northwest, therefore ATC was asked to report the direction of the plane. Not long after, in a matter of seconds, SJY 182 disappeared from radar, "said Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi, Saturday, January 9.

There were 62 passengers including the crew of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft. Of the total passengers, there are 7 children and 3 babies.

The Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft had its departure delayed for 30 minutes. The reason was the heavy rain.