JAKARTA – It is believed there was no explosion before the Sriwijaya Air jet crashed into waters off Thousand Islands last Saturday, Indonesia National Transport Safety Committee (KNKT) chief Soerjanto Tjahjono said.
He said this was because parts of the aircraft retrieved so far measured more than 23m.
"Parts of plane wreckage were also found within an area of 400m and the aircraft did not experience an explosion before crashing into the water," he said in a statement today.
The search operation for the aircraft entered its fourth day today, with the focus on hunting for the black box, believed to be able to help Indonesian authorities identify the real cause of the crash.
Meanwhile, National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) operations director Brig Gen Rasman in a statement said the operation today involved 2,600 personnel and 53 ships equipped with remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs).
In another development, Communications Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said in a statement the Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, where recovered body parts are being gathered, has obtained all 62 deoxyribonucleic acid samples from families of the victims.
The hospital will conduct ante-mortem and post-mortem examinations to identify the victims.
The Boeing 737-500 jet with 62 people, including 12 crew, on board, lost contact with ground controllers after taking off at 2.36pm from here en route to Pontianak, Kalimantan, before crashing in the waters off the Thousand Islands chain. – Bernama, January 12, 2021
