Indonesian police identify first victim of jet crash

DPA, 11TH JANUARY, 2021 -  Indonesian police on Monday identified the first victim of the weekend’s crash of a passenger jet as search teams retrieved more body parts from the Java Sea.

The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 jet plunged into the sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta airport on Saturday with 62 people on board.

“We have been able to identify one of the victims of the accident, named Oki Bisma,” national police spokesman Rusdi Hartono said.

Searchers have already recovered aircraft pieces, including a mangled engine turbine, and 40 bags of body parts, said the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).  “Our focus is to recover the bodies of the victims,” Bsarnas chief Bagus Puruhito said. 

An engine part weighing about 500 kilograms has yet to be retrieved after a first attempt failed, he said.  

The military said Sunday that two signals from the aircraft’s black boxes - which consist of a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder - had been picked up and located.

“This morning our divers began working in the area,” said naval officer Vice Admiral Abdul Rasyid on Monday.