Head of the Timika SAR Office George Mercy Randang confirmed that the SAR Office had dispatched a team of 10 rescuers led by the office's Operation Department Head, Syahril, to join the military and police team in Sugapa Sub-district to commence evacuation of the air crash victims.
The SAR team will then spend a night in Sudapa while continuing to coordinate with relevant parties to evacuate the victims and finalise the evacuation plan.
"The joint SAR team stationed in Sugapa is currently exploring possible land routes to reach the Rimbun Air plane's crash site. We decided to continue the land evacuation later on due to unfavourable weather conditions in the area on account of dark clouds and rains lashing the accident site," Randang stated.
The Timika SAR office is yet to conceive the plan for the victims' evacuation after reaching the crash site, as the office is required to firstly coordinate with relevant parties, he noted.
"We are not yet planning the victims' evacuation, as we have just recently communicated with the airline officials. We will inform about the update when the technical plan is ready," the SAR office head remarked.
The Rimbun Air Twin Otter 3000 aircraft, bearing registration code PK-OTW, lost contact mid-air during the flight from Nabire Airport to Sugapa, Intan Jaya District, on Wednesday morning at 7:37 local time (UTC +9).
The aircraft was manned by Pilot Mirza and Co-Pilot Fajar, who were accompanied by flight engineer Iswahyudi. The crashed aircraft carried construction material.
Head of the AirNav Indonesia in Timika Andi Nurwansyah earlier confirmed that the Timika SAR team had detected a signal suspected to have originated from the crashed Rimbun Air aircraft.
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Translator: Evarianus S, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
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