"The mud is half to one meter thick. This has complicated the search operation. Tomorrow, we will continue the search more thoroughly," Deputy Chief of the Operation and Preparedness of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Nugroho Budi Wiryanto, stated here on Saturday.
The SAR team has found some objects supposed to be the debris of the ill-fated Boeing 737 Max 8 that scattered within a radius of 52 meters.
The evacuation team would focus on the same location as today`s search operation, as there are more debris and bodies of the victims that have not been retrieved yet.
"Tomorrow, we will focus on the area where we have found the fuselage. We hope we can find and retrieve more," he added.
As of the sixth day of the operation, the joint SAR team has collected 104 body bags.
Seven victims of the incident have been identified, namely Jannatun Cintya Dewi, Candra Kirana, Monni, Hizkia Jorry Saroinsong, Endang Nur Sribagusnita, Wahyu Susilo, and Fauzan Azima.
The Lion Air JT610 plane crashed some 15 minutes after taking off at 6:20 a.m. local time from Jakarta on its way to Pangkalpinang in Bangka-Belitung Province in Sumatra, with 189 people on board on Monday.
Reporting by Roy Rosa Bachtiar
Editing by Sri Haryati
Reporter: Antara
Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
