The Testimony Of Seribu Island Fishermen: The Fall Of Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 Makes The Waves Very High

Debris from the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft. (Ilham Apriyanto)

JAKARTA - The crash of a Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane on the Jakarta-Pontianak route in the Thousand Islands cluster, North Jakarta, on Saturday, January 9 last afternoon, was likened to thundering like lightning. In fact, many residents around Lancang Island felt a great vibration from the incident of the nagas.

It was Hendrik Mulyadi, a small crab fisherman around the waters of Lancang Island-Male Island, Thousand Islands, who was the key witness to the crash of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-82 plane.

Hendrik said that when the unfortunate incident occurred, he was at a location that is strongly suspected of being the crash site of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane along with two of his colleagues who were crew members on his crab search ship.

"At that time it was raining quite big (possibly foggy), and the three of us in the middle of the sea were concentrating on taking the bubu (crab catcher), suddenly there was like a lightning bolt towards the water followed by a loud bang, debris flying at the water (the waves) were very high, fortunately my ship is okay, "said the 30-year-old man as quoted by Antara, Sunday, January 10.

After the series of events that lasted under two minutes, Hendrik admitted that he and his two colleagues could do nothing but wonder what was going on and thought it was a bomb that fell and exploded.

But strangely, Hendrik admitted that just before the incident, there was no sound of the aircraft engine before the loud bang, and there was no visible flames rising shortly after the loud bang.

"There was no engine sound. Then at the time of the incident there was no visible fire, only white smoke, flying debris, large waves of water, and there was a smell like fuel," he said.

Even though he was not injured and his boat was not damaged, Hendrik admitted that he was still shaken, so he did not feel good about eating and sleeping so that he could not work to find the crab like before.

From the information collected by the Sriwijaya Air aircraft registration number PK-CLC with flight number SJ-182 with the Jakarta-Pontianak route, contact lost on Saturday 9 January at 14:40 WIB and crashed in the waters of the Thousand Islands between Lancang Island and Male Island.

The Boeing 737-500 aircraft lost contact at a position 11 nautical miles north of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang after passing an altitude of 11,000 feet and at the time of increasing its altitude at 13,000 feet.

The plane took off from Soekarno Hatta Airport at 14.36 WIB. The schedule is delayed from the previous flight schedule at 13.35 WIB. Departure delays due to weather factors.

Based on manifest data, the aircraft produced in 1994 carried 62 people consisting of 50 passengers and 12 crew members. Of these, 40 adults, seven children, three babies. Meanwhile, the 12 crew consists of six active crews and six extra crews.

The existence of the aircraft is currently under investigation and search by the National SAR Agency (Basarnas) and the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC). Direct coordination is carried out with various parties, including the Police, TNI and the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta.

It has been two days since the Joint SAR Team has searched for passengers and the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane that had an accident in the waters of Male Island and Lancang, Seribu Archipelago, with various findings, including pieces of the suspected plane, as well as human body parts.