We have handed thee bags of plane debris and five bags of  human remains
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Rescue workers have retrieved more body parts believed to be those of passengers of Sriwijaya Air plane which crashed in the waters of Seribu Islands on Saturday.

"We have handed thee bags of plane debris and five bags of human remains," Operations Director of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Rasman said at the the Integrated SAR Command Post located in Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) 2 on Sunday.

The plane debris and human remains were handed to the Disaster Victim Identification (DIV) of the National Police (Polri) and the National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT) for further investigation, he said.

Basarnas has divided its personnel into six groups to locate the site of the plane crash.

Earlier, the search team recovered remains and properties believed to be those of passengers of Sriwijaya Air plane which crashed in the waters shortly after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Saturday afternoon.

Search teams filled two body bags with limbs and other human remains and sent them to Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta, Senior Commissioner Yusri Yuni, spokesman of the Jakarta Metro Jaya Police, said at the Integrated SAR Command Post located in the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JIC) 2, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Sunday.

"Since yesterday, there have been two body bags (sent to the hospital). We are together with TNI (the Indonesian Military) and Basarnas (the National Search and Rescue Agency)," he said.

The Sriwijaya Air jet reportedly carried 50 passengers and 12 cabin crew on its flight from Soekarno-Hatta Airport to Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said, during a virtual press conference held here on Saturday night.

The Ministry of Transportation had earlier confirmed that the air traffic controllers lost contact with Sriwijaya Air flight number SJ182 at approximately 2:40 p.m. Western Indonesian Standard Time (WIB).

The Boeing 737-500 plane, with registration number of PK CLC, had its last contact at a position 11 nautical miles north of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang, in suburban Jakarta, after passing an altitude of 11,000 feet and while increasing its altitude to 13,000 feet.

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Translator: Dewanto Samodro/Suharto
Editor: Sri Haryati
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