Indonesian President Joko Widodo vows all-night search for Lion Air wreckage as all 189 passengers and crew feared dead
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Indonesian rescuers on Monday night continued scouring the waters off Jakarta for the wreckage and black box of a Lion Air plane carrying 189 people that crashed in the wee hours of the morning, soon after the almost-brand-new Boeing 737 Max 8 took flight.
At a crisis centre set up at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, a grim-faced President Joko Widodo said he had ordered various authorities to conduct a round-the-clock search and for the National Transportation Safety Committee, known as KNKT, to thoroughly investigate why Lion Air flight JT610 plunged into the sea.
“I have ordered the search and rescue agency, the police, the military, and transport ministry to keep looking for the main wreckage … overall there are 15 rescue boats,” Widodo said on Monday evening.
“I also have ordered them to work tonight, to work 24 hours using lights to speed up the search efforts, especially for the body of the plane.”
The KNKT, Widodo said, had accepted help from the Singapore government to find the plane’s black box.
“We understand what it must feel like for the families and relatives of the passengers who are waiting for information, especially from Basarnas [Indonesia’s search and rescue agency],” Widodo said.
No one has been found alive and Basarnas operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters there were probably no survivors.