Indonesian authorities retrieve 31 body bags of Russian jet victims
A total of 31 body bags containing the remains of the ill-fated Sukhoi Superjet 100 have been evacuated from the plane's crash site in the hills of Mt. Salak in Bogor, West Java as of yesterday, an official has confirmed.
Bogor’s Surya Kencana Military Resort commander Col. (Inf.) A.M. Putranto was quoted by tribunnews.com as saying that the last two body bags were taken from the scene at 3:31 p.m. yesterday.
"We are hoping that the evacuation process will be completed on Wednesday morning,” he said.
A total of 22 fingerprints of the ill-fated airliner’s victims have already been identified by the National Police’s Disaster Victim Identification unit.
The Russian-made aircraft Sukhoi Superjet 100, with 45 people onboard, disappeared from radar screens last Wednesday before an Air Force helicopter spotted its wreckage in the foothills of Mt. Salak’s in Cidahu, Sukabumi, the day after.
Eight Russian crew members, one American citizen and one French passenger were onboard along with 35 Indonesians. Search and rescue teams found that the bodies of the Sukhoi passengers were no longer intact.
Meanwhile, many questions will likely be answered now that the members of the Indonesia’s search and rescue missions have finally found the flight-data recorder, commonly known as the ‘black box’, of the jet.
Putranto told Antara news agency late yesterday that members of joint team between the Army Special Force (Kopassus) and Indonesia Rock Climbing Federation discovered the black box at the crash scene.
"The officials of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) studied the object that the members had discovered at the crash scene. They concluded that it was indeed the Sukhoi’s black box,” he said.
Putranto said the team found the flight-data recorder near the wreckage of the ill-fated aircraft’s rear section at around 10 p.m.
Earlier this week, KNKT chief Tatang Kurniadi told The Jakarta Post that the starting point of the examination of airplane’s black box would be in Indonesia, saying that he had discussed it with Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Alexander A. Ivanov.
He added, however, that should Russian technology be needed to explore the black box’s data, his team would bring the black box to Moscow.
The Russian-made aircraft Sukhoi Superjet 100, with 45 people onboard, disappeared from radar screens last Wednesday before an Air Force helicopter spotted its wreckage at an altitude of 5,800 feet in the foothills of Mt. Salak’s in Cidahu, Sukabumi, the day after.
