Several pieces of debris from Lion Air JT-610 has been recovered since its crash on Monday morning, but the main body of the plane has yet to be found. The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) said today says it has determined possible coordinates of where the plane crashed, and therefore the possible location of the plane’s main fuselage, which is believed to have sunk underwater.
The news was conveyed by TNI Commander Hadi Tjahjanto during a press conference this morning, and he says he’s hopeful the military’s finding will lead to the discovery of the plane’s main body by the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
“There is a strong reason to believe that the coordinates of the main fuselage of the JT-610 have been determined,” Hadi told reporters today, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Hadi added that ships equipped with sonar technology have been dispatched to the location.
“There’s a strong possibility that that is the location of the fuselage we’re looking for. There’s a great chance that many of the victims are still inside,” he said.
As of the conclusion of yesterday’s search efforts, a total of 48 body bags have been retrieved from the suspected crash site and delivered to the National Police Hospital in Jakarta for analysis. None of the bodies have been identified yet, and the police has said that the number of body bags doesn’t necessarily equal the number of victims recovered, as many of them were found in pieces.
“There are medical signs [for identification], like tattoos and victims who are 3-4 years old and a baby. But we are still lacking in data so we need to wait for DNA test results,” National Police Hospital Chief Musyafak told reporters today, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
JT-610, which departed Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Oct. 29 at 6:20am and was scheduled to arrive in Bangka Belitung capital Pangkal Pinang at 7:20am, disappeared from the radar around 13 minutes after take-off.
The Aviation Agency says the flight’s pilot requested to return to Soekarno-Hatta shortly after take off before communications were lost with the plane. Basarnas then found evidence that the plane crashed in the waters of Karawang Bay off the coast of West Java soon after.
