Indonesia plane crash: SAR teams secure black boxes, victims identified

The joint search and rescue (SAR) team has recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) from the wreckage of an Indonesia Air Transport (IAT) ATR 42-500 that crashed in South Sulawesi last week.

The ATR 42-500 went missing on January 17 while attempting to land at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

The aircraft, carrying 10 people – seven crew members and three passengers from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries – lost contact over the mountainous region of Mount Bulusaraung.

According to Colonel Dody Triyo Hadi, operations assistant at the XIV/Hasanuddin Military District Command, the tail section of the aircraft, where the black boxes are installed, was visually identified on January 20. Unfavourable weather delayed retrieval, but the SAR team successfully removed the devices on January 21.

“We removed the black boxes from their mounts and transported them to the checkpoint in Tompobulu village,” Colonel Hadi said, confirming that both recorders were intact. The findings have been sent to the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) for verification.

The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has been notified, with officers standing by for further instructions. Makassar Basarnas Office head, Muhammad Arif Anwar, confirmed that the black boxes are now secured and will be handed over to the NTSC for investigation.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team has identified the first victim, a 33-year-old flight attendant, Florencia Lolita Wibisono. The second victim, a male, is yet to be identified.

By Aghakazim Guliyev