Basarnas Director of Operations Yudhi Bramantyo said during a press conference from Jakarta on Saturday that lessons from the previous day underscored the need for tighter coordination between heavy equipment operators and rescue teams.
“We have coordinated with the Military District Commander (Dandim), who oversees the use of heavy equipment, to ensure more precise deployment. Some areas should not be handled with machinery and are better managed manually by our personnel,” he said.
Bramantyo explained that certain debris needed to be structurally cut before rescue teams could continue evacuating victims trapped beneath the rubble.
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As of Friday (Oct. 3), the joint SAR team had recovered nine bodies using a combination of manual search methods and heavy machinery, though progress was slow due to victims’ difficult-to-reach positions.
“We have divided teams into three sectors to accelerate the search, but personnel safety remains our top priority,” Bramantyo emphasized.
He added that improved coordination is expected to enhance efficiency on day six of the operation while minimizing risks for rescue workers operating under hazardous conditions.
Basarnas also called on the public to pray for the success of the mission, expressing hope that the entire operation will proceed safely and yield the most effective results for humanitarian purposes.
The school building collapsed on September 29, 2025, while hundreds of students were performing prayers in the ground-floor prayer room.
The East Java Basarnas office received a report about the incident at around 3:35 p.m. local time, shortly after concrete construction work had been underway since morning.
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Translator: M. Riezko Bima, Kuntum Khaira
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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