"We have delivered the black box, debris and propellers of the ill-fated Aviastar to KNKT in a bid to investigate the incident," Chief of the Basarnas, Vice Marshal F Henry Bambang Soelistyo, said.
Makassar, S Sulawesi (ANTARA News) - The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has handed over black box and debris of crashed Aviastar aircraft to chief of the Indonesian National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT) for investigation.

"We have delivered the black box, debris and propellers of the ill-fated Aviastar to KNKT in a bid to investigate the incident," Chief of the Basarnas, Vice Marshal F Henry Bambang Soelistyo, said here on Monday.

According to him, the discovered parts of the plane should be delivered to KNKT that will investigate the debris.

As many as ten bodies of the victims of the crashed Aviastar aircraft, which were evacuated by a joint team in order to investigate the incident arrived in advance at the airport, while another five bodies were brought by a helicopter belonging to the military (TNI), ANTARA learned here on Tuesday.

All the bodies were then placed in coffins and handed over by Basarnas officials to the regional police headquarters.

The bodies were subsequently rushed to Bhayangkara hospital for identification process.

The ill-fated Twin Otter aircraft belonging to Aviastar airline and bearing registration number DHC6/PKBRM, was discovered as having crashed on Monday in Gamaru hamlet, Ulu Salu village, Enrekang Sub-district, South Sulawesi at 05.00 p.m. WITA.

The aircraft had lost contact while it was on its way from Masamba to Makassar, South Sulawesi, at 2:36 p.m. Central Indonesia Time (WITA), on Friday.

The plane lost contact at 14:36 Central Indonesia Time, 11 minutes after take-off from Andi Jemma airport in Masamba in West Sulawesi and was headed for Makassar in South Sulawesi, which would have taken 70 minutes of flying time.

The plane was being piloted by Iri Afriadi with Yudhistira as co-pilot and Sukris as technician at the time of the crash.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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