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Singapore investigators in Jakarta to assist with Sriwijaya Air crash

January 17, 2021
Navy rescuers find a part of the Sriwijaya Air plane wreckage Saturday. A team from Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau is assisting with the probe into the  crash. — courtesy Twitter
Navy rescuers find a part of the Sriwijaya Air plane wreckage Saturday. A team from Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau is assisting with the probe into the crash. — courtesy Twitter

SINGAPORE/JAKARTA — A team from Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau is assisting with the probe into the Sriwijaya Air plane crash, said Singapore's Ministry of Transport on Sunday.

The two investigators arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday after Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee accepted Singapore's offer to help with the investigation.

Flight SJ182 lost contact with air traffic controllers minutes after taking off from Jakarta during heavy rain on Jan 9. The Boeing 737-500 crashed into the Java Sea, killing all 62 people on board.

Singapore's Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said the two investigators are working with the Indonesian team to look at the recovered data and wreckage.

"Alexander Leong specializes in flight recorders and is working with the National Transportation Safety Committee’s team in Jakarta to look at recovered data.

"David Lim, a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer, is with the team at Tanjung Priok port looking through the wreckage that has been recovered so far," said Ong in a Facebook post on Sunday.

The pair have 18 years of air incident investigation experience between them, the minister said in a Facebook post. Ong added: "It is meticulous, complex work. Some data has already been recovered. We hope for more positive developments in the coming days."

Indonesian divers have found the casing of the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea last week, but are still searching for its memory unit, a navy officer, Reuters reported on Friday.

Earlier this week, divers hoisted from the seabed the other so-called black box, the flight data recorder (FDR), of the 26-year-old Boeing Co 737-500 jet.

Air accident investigators have downloaded data from the FDR, which they hope will help determine the cause of the crash though will also want to hear the cockpit voice recordings.

“We’ve found the (CVR) body or casing, we’ve found the beacon and now we’re looking for the memory,” officer Abdul Rasyid told reporters aboard the navy ship Rigel.

Abdul was confident divers would find the memory unit within the next few days, adding that a plane’s black boxes were usually strong and could withstand a considerable impact.

Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has successfully downloaded information from the FDR, which contained 330 parameters and “all are in good conditions”, the committee said in a statement on Friday.

KNKT plans to issue a preliminary report within 30 days of the crash, in line with international standards, the agency’s head told Reuters on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a team from the US National Transportation Safety Board is also in Jakarta to help with the investigation, Indonesian authorities said on Saturday.

The American team consists of representatives from the US Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing and General Electric.

They joined the Singapore team at the search and rescue command center at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta to view some of the plane debris. — Agencies


January 17, 2021
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