Tenth Day, SJ-182 Sriwijaya Air Search Area Is Minimized

Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 search operation (Photo: Diah / VOI)

JAKARTA - Basarnas Operations Director, Brigadier General Rasman, said that the search for victims and materials of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft by the joint SAR team on the tenth day would shrink the search area.

Reduction of this area is carried out by a team of divers on a search below sea level. If in the initial operation the SAR team was divided into six sectors, now there are four sectors. Meanwhile, monitoring of findings in the air sector remains mapped in the same area as yesterday.

"For the subsurface, we will narrow the sector. We will stick in one sector, we divide it into 4 sectors. In which, one sector is approximately between 15 and 30 meters," said Rasman at the JICT II Integrated Command Post, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Monday, January 18.

Rasman said the reason the SAR team reduced the search sector was due to the increasing number of search results being found. Thus, there are a number of points in the last known position (LKP) or the location of the crash that has been cleared of victims and material.

As for today's search, the joint SAR team is still searching for aircraft victims, aircraft engine parts, and black boxes with the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) type.

Yesterday, the SAR team found the CVR black box casing. However, the casing was detached from the core material that could dismantle the cause of the crash, namely the memory section.

"Below that we have cleaned a lot, we have lifted it, so that it is more effective when we narrow it down. Hopefully, by narrowing it down, doing it with great enthusiasm, there is a big possibility that we can find the contents of the CVR," said Rasman.

Furthermore, today is the last day of the search for the SAR team, after being extended for 3 days. Rasmany said, today the Head of Basarnas will coordinate with related agencies regarding the consideration that an extension of the search period is still needed or not.

"This evaluation is reported to the Minister of Transportation to determine whether it is extended or not. Let's wait. Whatever the decision, of course there are many considerations that underlie it to be extended or terminated today," Rasman explained.

For information, the total findings of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 SAR operation on the ninth day were 308 body bags containing the victim's body parts, 58 bags of small plane fragments, 54 large pieces of aircraft, FDR black box, and CVR black box casing.