Authorities yesterday said that they had pinpointed the location of two black boxes from a crashed Indonesian jet, referring to cockpit voice and flight data recorders that could help explain why the aircraft went down with 62 people aboard.
The announcement came as divers pulled body parts, wreckage and clothing from waters near Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.
“We have located the position of the black boxes, both of them,” said Soerjanto Tjahjanto, head of the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee. “Divers will start looking for them now and hopefully it won’t be long before we get them.”
Photo: Reuters
The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 went into a steep dive about four minutes after it left Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on Saturday afternoon.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo expressed his “deep condolences,” and called on citizens to “pray together so that victims can be found.”
However, the frantic search involving helicopters and a flotilla of warships appeared to offer no hope of finding any survivors.
The Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency said that it had so far collected five body bags with human remains, as well as debris from the crash site in the Java Sea.
A piece of child’s clothing, a broken tire and wheel, life jackets and wreckage from the plane’s body were found, authorities and reporters on the scene said.
Among the passengers was Beben Sofian, 59, and her husband Dan Razanah, 58.
“They took a selfie and sent it to their kids before taking off,” the couple’s nephew, Hendra said.
All 62 people on board, passengers and crew, were Indonesian, authorities said.
The count included 10 children.
Distraught relatives waited nervously for news at the airport in Pontianak, the city on Indonesia’s section of Borneo island which had been Flight SJ182’s destination, about 90 minutes flying time over the Java Sea.
“I have four family members on the flight — my wife and three children,” Yaman Zai said on Saturday evening. My wife “sent me a picture of the baby today... How could my heart not be torn into pieces?”
Data from FlightRadar24 indicated that the airliner reached an altitude of nearly 3,350m before dropping suddenly to 76.2m. It then lost contact with air traffic control.
Poor weather, pilot error or a technical problem were potential factors, Jakarta-based aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman said.
“But it’s way too early to conclude anything,” he added. “After the black box is found we can start putting the puzzle together.”
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would