Early Hours at Debris Site

It was a sunny day and the sea was calm when state-owned ship Damaru, carrying 12 members of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Special Group, arrived at the crash site of Lion Air flight JT-610 at 12.50 p.m. on Monday (29/10/2018).

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Members of the evacuation team show debris of the ill-fated airplane, which crashed off the Karawang beach, Karawang regency, West Java, Monday (29/10/2018).

It was a sunny day and the sea was calm when state-owned ship Damaru, carrying 12 members of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Special Group, arrived at the crash site of Lion Air flight JT-610 at 12.50 p.m. on Monday.

It took two hours from the Tanjung Priok Marine and Coast Guard Base (PLP) in North Jakarta to the location in the waters off Karawang regency, West Java.

In the afternoon, smaller ships sailed in the area, while large ships waited for orders. "We are close, but we must wait for orders from rescue ship KN SAR Basudewa," said the captain of the KN Damaru, Wuryanto. The ship\'s engine was turned off.

Tanjung Priok PLP operations head Pujo Kurniawan said the state-owned patrol ship KNP 348 would soon take berth, bringing its findings from the location. When the ship arrived, a number of personal items suspected to belong to the flight’s passengers were in the ship’s bow. Wallets, bags, buoys and body parts were gathered from the sea’s surface.

The findings caused the crew and the Basarnas Special Group (BSG) members to grow silent. Earlier, several members of the rescue team were optimistic that some of the passengers had survived. "With these findings, it means we have to search for debris," said Tanjung Priok PLP Base chief Mukhlish Tohepoly.

A rubber dinghy was immediately lowered from the stern of Damaru. The boat sailed for about an hour collecting floating debris. "The initial search is difficult, because the location of the aircraft body has not been mapped," said Pujo.

The search focused on combing the sea’s surface. After about an hour, Pujo reported that the search team had found a large piece of debris. He immediately jumped onto the deck of KNP 438 to look at what it had found.

The object, about 1 meter long, was thought to be part of the Lion Air aircraft\'s wings. There was a smell of fuel. The finding made the rescue group aware of the situation they faced. Mukhlish immediately ordered the BSG members to transfer to KNP 438. They would be taken to the KN SAR Basudewa ship.

On the way to the KN SAR Basudewa, the true condition was clearly visible. Brown flakes filled the surface of the sea. A bad smell rose when KNP 438 split the brown waters. Rescue boats, including those belonging to the Navy and the National Police, as well as fishing boats, gathered the debris.

After dropping off the rescue team at the SAR Basudewa, the KNP 438 rushed to Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) 2, leaving Damaru on standby for the recovery operation. At 4:30 p.m., a number of rubber dinghies and ships were still collecting the debris scattered across relatively calm waters. The findings were then taken to the Basarnas ship.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Members of the Navy’s Jalamangkara Detachment collect debris and the belongings of the victims of flight JT-610 on Monday (29/10/2018).

Still missing

By Monday afternoon, the main body of the aircraft had still not been found. The crash site also could not be ascertained. Only scattered debris was found.

Muksi, 40, a resident of Tanjung village in Pakis Jaya subdistrict, Karawang, said that fishermen at sea on Monday morning heard a sound like a loud thump. "The loud noise was heard around 6:30 a.m.," he told Kompas, which had rented a wooden boat to travel to the recovery location.

The village is about two hours from where the debris was found, in a fishing area common among Karawang fishermen. On Monday, a crowd of people from several locations waited in the village for the latest developments in the search and rescue (SAR) efforts.

Bandung Search and Rescue (SAR) Office head Deden Ridwansyah said that on the first day of the operation in Tanjung Pakis waters, a number of bodies had been recovered and sent to the SAR command post in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

The recovery of the victims’ bodies was not optimal because the crash site had not been determined. Neither had the black box been found. "We just found an area with a radius of about 1 nautical mile that was suspected to be where the plane crashed," said Deden. The area was determined according to the location of the floating debris.

Twenty-three patrol boats searched for the crash site, and involved around 100 divers. They dived alternately every 40 minutes to a depth of 30-35 meters.

"We stopped the dive on the first day at 5:00 p.m.," said Deden. “Diving after 7:00 p.m. is dangerous. The undersea current is strong. The sea surface is cloudy. An oil spill from the airplane has stirred up the mud, making it difficult for us," he said. However, the surface searches continued. “Hopefully, the crash site will be found soon, so we can focus on searching," he said.

At 5:40 p.m., when the sun began to sink, the KNP 438 arrived at Tanjung Priok. The situation was dismal, as every ship brought bad news.

(E06/AGS/TAM/NIA/RTG/SEM/WIN/NTA/BOW/REK)