Basarnas Again Extends The Search Period For Sriwijaya Air SJ-182, This Is The Reason

A press conference from Kabasarnas Bagus Puruhito, who confirmed the extension of the SAR joint search for victims including CVR Sriwijaya Air (Diah Ayu Wardani / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Head of Basarnas Marshal Madya Bagus Puruhito confirmed that the search period for victims and materials of the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft was extended for the next three days.

"After considering various things, earlier we had a meeting with the Ministry of Transportation, KNKT, DVI, and related parties, so that our SAR operation will be extended by three more days," said Bagus at the JICT II Integrated Command Post, North Jakarta, Monday, January 18.

It is known that the SAR team's operating period refers to the provisions of Law Number 29 of 2014 concerning Search and Rescue, which states that the search for victims will last for seven days and can be extended.

SAR operations started from January 9 to January 14. Then, it was extended to January 18 and again to January 21.

"Of course, then we will evaluate every day to see the results, effectiveness, constraints, and everything else in the field. Later, we will look at the extension to determine the next steps," said Bagus.

Bagus said the reason for his party to extend the search period for the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft was because more victims needed to be searched for so that they could be identified by the National Police's disaster victim identification (DVI) team.

"The reason, which is clear is humanity. Until now, DVI has only officially released 29 identified. Of course the joint SAar team is trying their best to carry out the evacuation of victims," said Bagus.

"The more bags we find, the more useful it will be for DVI in helping the identification process," he continued.

A pocket bag related to the joint SAR operation at the JICT2 Jakarta post (Diah Ayu Wardani / VOI)

Another reason, until now the SAR team has not found a crash survivable memory unit (CSMU) from a black box with a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) type. CSMU is the core memory that records the conversation between the pilot and the copilot before the plane crashes.

Meanwhile, a black box with a flight data recorder (FDR) type was found on January 12. Currently, the FDR is being researched by the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC).

Yesterday, the SAR team also found a 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.

"In this context I want to focus on evacuating victims. At the same time, carrying out the evacuation of the CVR section that has not yet been found, called CSMU. That is the part that records voice or voice data in the cockpit. That's what we have not found," said Bagus.