No Victims Of Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 Have Been Identified From DNA Samples, Why?

Evacuation of Sriwijaya AIr SJ 182 Aircraft (Photo: Diah / VOI)

JAKARTA - Head of the DNA Laboratory of the National Police Health Center, Kombes Ratna, said that currently no Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 victim has been identified based on DNA samples collected from the family. The process to identify through this DNA has already begun.

"If the identification is not yet, but if the process is already underway," said Ratna in a press conference broadcast at the Kramat Jati Police Hospital, East Jakarta, Wednesday, January 13.

"God willing, if there are no obstacles, Thursday or Friday the analysis will begin to match and hopefully, yes, as yesterday it worked well," he added.

He explained that the identification process using this DNA sample had no obstacles. It's just that, different from identification using fingerprints, the use of DNA samples is usually much longer.

The reason is that identification with DNA must be done by a certain process. He said, when his party had received samples from the families of Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 passengers, they had to sort them first to find which samples were suitable for identification.

Then after selecting a suitable sample there is a further process, namely the extraction process. "So after we do (collection, red) then DNA profiles appear and we also have to match them one by one using certain software," he said.

The state of the body parts or body parts also has an effect. Since body parts are found submerged in water, sterilization must be carried out.

"The body part is submerged in water. This is a challenge for us to be more careful and careful, because the DNA must be sterile, the DNA examination must be sterile," he said.

So, before carrying out the identification of body parts, it is necessary to sterilize them first so that they are not contaminated with cells from other parts found in one location.

This whole process, said Ratna, should not be overlooked and carried out carelessly. Because, if there is one process that is missed, the body part of the passenger will not be identified.

"If in the post mortem, maybe it has been separated at the scene of the crime, maybe it has been separated, but in cell, cell, it also has to be separated again. This is what requires these stages, and the stages cannot be skipped because if they are passed later the results will not appear," he said.

This is very different from identification using fingerprints. He said, identification with fingerprints is easier because there is already a database from the Dukcapil of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It is known, until the fourth day yesterday there were four passengers whose identities had been identified and two of them were crews from Sriwijaya Air.

The two crews are Okky Bisma who is the flight attendent or steward of the unlucky plane and Fadly Satrianto who is an extra crew.

While the other two were passengers, namely Khasanah and Asy Habul Yamin.

Previously reported, the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane on the Jakarta-Pontianak route had lost contact in the Thousand Islands shortly after taking off from Soekarno Hatta Airport on Saturday, January 9, 2020. Furthermore, the authorities confirmed if the plane crashed around Male Island and Lancang Island, Thousand Islands.

In total, the plane carried 62 people including 12 crew members and 50 passengers consisting of 40 adult passengers, seven children and three babies.