"The evacuation process has been halted until tomorrow morning."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The evacuation of the Sukhoi plane crash victims has been delayed due to bad weather conditions in the Mount Salak area, West Java province, said the chairman of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Vice Marshall Daryatmo here on Thursday.
"We have identified the crash coordinates, but our personnel have not yet arrived at the location. However, because there is thick fog covering Mount Salak and the tilt of the cliff is 85 degrees, the evacuation process has been halted until tomorrow morning," Daryatmo added.
There are reportedly two ways in which the plane crash victims on Mount Salak can be evacuated - air evacuation by chopper and land evacuation by sending a rescue team to the crash location. However, none of these methods have succeeded so far because thick fog and the challenging geographical terrain are hampering the rescue team`s efforts to reach the location.
According to Sunaryo, the consultant of PT Tri Mega Rekatama (Sukhoi`s agent in Indonesia), the evacuation efforts will be resumed on Friday morning, depending on the weather conditions at the crash site.
"Since the evacuation process has been deferred until tomorrow morning, we call on the victims` families waiting at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta to go home and take some rest," he said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the National Committee for Transportation Safety Tatang Kurniadi stated that the crash incident will be investigated soon by experts from both Indonesia and Russia.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100 was carrying 45 people - 33 Indonesians, eight Russians, one American, one Frenchman and two Italians - on a demonstration flight, when it dropped off the radar just 21 minutes after take-off on Wednesday (May 9).
The Sukhoi had taken off from Halim Perdanakusuma air force base in eastern Jakarta at 2:21 pm on Wednesday, and was lost to the radar within 21 minutes. At that time, it was flying in a drizzle near Mount Salak.
The Sukhoi reportedly dropped off the radar shortly after the crew asked air traffic control for permission to drop from an altitude of 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 meters to 1,800 meters).
(L.A050*A051/INE/KR-BSR/H-YH)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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