"We must work hard," Jokowi stated after meeting with relatives of the ill-fated JT610 airplane at Soekarno Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten on Monday.
Jokowi noted that the search and rescue team has worked hard to find the victims and the airplane.
Meanwhile, the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has predicted that many victims were still trapped in the aircraft.
The agency`s Director for Operational and Training Brigadier Gen (Mar), Bambang Suryo Aji, remarked in Basarnas headquarters that the rescue team has found debris and some body parts of the victims during its operation since morning.
"Therefore, Basarnas must find the plane`s position soon, as there is a possibility for us to dive, considering the depth (of the location)," Aji revealed.
Basarnas has deployed 40 personnel of its Special Group and will deploy more personnel from Semarang and Lampung.
"We have a total of 150 Basarnas personnel, plus more personnel from Semarang and Lampung, the Indonesian Navy`s Frogmen Forces (Kopaska) and the Marine Corps," he elaborated.
Currently, the operation has focused on efforts to locate the airplane wreckage under the waters using detecting equipment and the remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV).
A hydro-oceanography ship KRI Rigel 933 and another ship of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of technology (BPPT) were also deployed to detect the plane wreckage under the sea.
Local authorities confirmed that Lion Air flight JT610, which was scheduled to arrive in Pangkalpinang in Bangka Belitung Province at 7:05 a.m. local time, crashed some 15 minutes after taking off at 6:20 a.m. local time from Jakarta.
The aircraft carried 189 people on board.
Reporting by Santoso
Editing by Sri Haryati
Reporter: antara
Editor: Eliswan Azly
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
