"The National Transportation Safety Commission has set up a command center and has also deployed several investigators," the KNKT Deputy Chief, Haryo Satmiko, told journalists here.
The KNKT team members had got onboard of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology`s (BPPT) research vessel Baruna Jaya I heading to the crash site on Monday evening. The ship had arrived at the site at 06.00 am local time on Tuesday.
Then, the commission`s investigators coordinated with the Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator of the National Agency for Search and Rescue (BNPP), the Indonesian military (TNI), and the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina to begin the search of the main wreckage.
On Tuesday at 09.30 am local time, the KNKT and BPPT team members lowered a rigid inflatable boat carrying a multi-beam sonar and ping locator into the sea waters off Tanjung Karawang, West Java Province, to search for the crash site of the ill-fated plane.
The transportation safety commission`s investigators remained at the sea in their efforts to find the flight recorder or black box of the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft carrying 189 people on board.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Police`s Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team has received 47 more body bags and six bags containing properties of those on board of the ill-fated Lion Air aircraft.
Those bags were received by Sukanto Police Hospital from the evacuation team members at the Tanjung Priok command post in North Jakarta, Chief of Kramatjati Police Precinct Commissioner Nurdin AR said.
The Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed in to the sea off Tanjung Karawang, West Java, 13 minutes after taking off from Cengkareng`s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 06.20 am local time on its way to Pangkal Pinang in Bangka Belitung Province on Monday.
The ill-fated plane was reported to have lost contact at 06.33 am local time.
In another development, on Tuesday at around 4.10 pm local time, President Joko Widodo observed the search and rescue efforts that the joint SAR team members carried out to find the missing passengers and crew members and remnants of the ill-fated plane.
The president arrived at the Integrated Command Center for Evacuation of Victims of Lion Air flight JT 610 in the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) of Tanjung Priok Port, Jakarta, and met with a number of SAR officers who were on duty.
Chief of the National SAR Agency (Basarnas) M Syaugi as well as Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi gave explanations on the items found in the ocean and believed that they were related to the Lion Air flight JT 610.
Reporting by Mentari Dwi Gayati
Editing by Rahmad Nasution
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
