Jakarta: Indonesian rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of clothing and scraps of metal from the Java Sea early Sunday morning, a day after a Boeing 737-500 with 62 people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, officials said.
Officials were hopeful they were honing in on the wreckage of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 after sonar equipment detected a signal from the aircraft.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told reporters that authorities have launched massive search efforts after identifying “the possible location of the crash site.”
“These pieces were found by the SAR team between Lancang Island and Laki Island,” National Search and Rescue Agency Bagus Puruhito in a statement.
President Joko Widod said, ‘I represent the government and all Indonesians in expressing my deep condolences for this tragedy. We are doing our best to save the victims. We pray together so that the victims can be found’. He also said that he had asked the National Transport Safety Committee to conduct an investigation.
With a massive search and rescue mission underway, there were no immediate clues on what may have caused the jet’s sudden descent. Safety experts stress most air accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors that can take months to establish.
Relatives of the passengers have been waiting anxiously at the airport in Pontianak, as well as at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.