Lion Air flight JT 610 – body parts found, no plane located yet

PHOTO: Indonesian National Disaster & Mitigation Agency

Search and rescue efforts continue to find more bodies and debris in the wake of the Lion Air flight JT 610 that crashed yesterday morning just after 6.30am in the seas north of Jakarta, Indonesia.

According to rescuers, a total of 24 body bags have now been taken to the Kramat Jati Police hospital for post mortem. Police Commissioner Musyafak said that each bag could contain remains of more than one person, so authorities are still unable to confirm the number of bodies that have been retrieved so far. DNA samples have also been taken from 132 family members of passengers in an effort to speed up the identification of the remains.

A joint command post has been set up at the Jakarta International Container Terminal. Many items – documentation, bags, passports, lifejackets, parts of a plane’s fuselage – were found floating near the crash site during a search operation yesterday in amongst an oil slick.

The head of Indonesia’s search and rescue organisation, BASARNAS, says it will continue operations 24-hours a day until the missing 737 Max 8 jet has been found.

The Director of Operations, Brigadier General Bambang Suryoaji, says that some of the dive operations have been suspended whilst they await better weather.

”We are all out, we are exerting all our efforts to find where the aircraft is located.“

Lion Air says they’ve flown families of flight JT 160 from Pangkal Pinang, Bangka – the destination of the fateful flight – to Jakarta. As of last night, 90 family members had been flown to Jakarta with more on the way, to await harrowing news about their loved ones.

Meanwhile, the Australian government has advised officials and contractors against flying on the Indonesian low cost airline. The advice was updated yesterday following the crash of the Lion Air flight. The Australian government says the decision will be reviewed once findings of the crash investigation are clear.

A brand new Max 8 model Boeing 737, same as the JT 610 flight – PHOTO: Airways Magazine