VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A joint search and rescue (SAR) team has collected 16 more body bags from the site of the Sriwijaya Air plane crash in the waters off the Seribu Islands.

"We will later hand over the 16 bags of body parts to the team of DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) and KNKT (National Committee for Transportation Safety) for further investigation," operations director of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Brig. Gen. Rasman MS, said during a press conference at the integrated SAR command post at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) 2 in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Thursday.

The body bags were transported from the crash site to the integrated SAR command post on a Basarnas vessel.

They were the fourth batch to be handed over to the DVI and KNKT team.

A total of 196 body bags have been collected since the search operation commenced.

Earlier, the Marine Security Agency (Bakamla) also handed over a bag of plane debris and a bag containing passengers' property in the form of books or journals to the DVI and KNKT team for further investigation.

The Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182, bearing the registration number PK-CLC, lost contact on Saturday (January 9, 2020) at 2:40 p.m. Western Indonesia time (WIB) shortly after take-off and crashed between Lancang Island and Laki Island, Seribu Islands, DKI Jakarta. The flight was traveling on the Jakarta-Pontianak route.

The Boeing 737-500 aircraft lost contact at a position 11 nautical miles north of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang after crossing an altitude of 11 thousand feet and while climbing to a higher altitude of 13 thousand feet.

The plane took off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 2.36 p.m. Western Indonesia time (WIB) on Saturday. Its schedule was delayed from the previous flight schedule of 1.35 p.m. WIB due to weather conditions.

Based on the manifest, the aircraft, which was produced in 1994, was carrying 62 persons: 50 passengers and 12 crew members. The passengers comprised 40 adults, seven children, and three babies. (Antaranews)