Families Wait in Sorrow at Makeshift Crisis Center for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 Updates

Jakarta. The relatives of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crash victims have arrived at Sriwijaya Air crisis center at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Saturday to hear the latest development about the search of their families members on board the ill-fated flight. 

The authorities believed 62 people, including seven children and three babies, were on board the flight, which lost contact with the air-traffic control four minutes after taking off. The flight, serviced by 26-year old Boeing 737-524 aircraft, never arrived at Supadio International Airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. 

Sriwijaya Air established a makeshift crisis center to console and inform the passengers' relatives and colleagues about the latest development. The crisis center also collected the flight passengers' personal data that would be useful for their identification later. 

Transportation Ministry's spoke person Adita Irawati said in a press conference at the crisis center on Saturday that the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) had deployed personnel to the last known location of a Sriwijaya Air airplane that disappeared from radar and was believed to have crashed off the coast near the Laki Island in Thousand Islands, North Jakarta.

Transportation Ministry's patrol boats reported they have pulled out airplane debris and human body parts from the waters suspected to be the ill-fated Boeing 737-524 aircraft's crash location. 

The Technology Assessment and Application Agency (BPPT) would deploy Baruna Jaya IV, a marine surveyor ship equipped with a multibeam echo sounder, sonar, and ping locator, to pinpoint the aircraft's final resting place.