"I have been following the development of the search and rescue operation on the ground from minute to minute and hour to hour, especially for finding the victims," he told journalists after making an impromptu visit, or blusukan, to Surya Kencana wet market here on Tuesday evening.
Several hours after the crash occurred on Monday, President Joko Widodo visited the emergency command post at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Banten Province.
On Tuesday, at around 4.10 p.m. 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 wreckage 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.
He said the government would work so hard to find the wreckage of the Lion Air flight JT 610 that crashed 13 minutes after taking off from Cengkareng`s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 06.20 a.m. local time on its way to Pangkal Pinang in Bangka Belitung Province on Monday.
During his visit to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport`s Terminal I on Monday afternoon, the incumbent president, commonly known as Jokowi, had expressed his condolences to the victims and their families.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) still collected all necessary data related to the crash of Lion Air flight JT 610 on Tuesday.
"The National Transportation Safety Committee 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 committee`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 committee`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.
Reporting by Bayu Prasetyo
Editing by Rahmad Nasution, Sri Haryati
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
