Indonesia to inspect all Boeing 737-MAX planes, plans sanctions for Lion Air after crash
- The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia’s fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and US blacklists
- Two passengers on the plane’s previous flight from Bali to Jakarta on Sunday have described issues that caused frustration and alarm
Indonesia on Tuesday ordered the inspection of all Boeing 737-MAX airliners in service in the country, as its transport minister warned of sanctions for Lion Air over the mystery crash of an almost-new jet carrying 189 people.
“To whom exactly we will have to wait … the sanctions can be applied to the airline management, company’s board, or cabin crew, and even to the plane [manufacturer] but we can’t apply the sanctions this early in the investigation,” Budi Karya Sumadi said.
As night fell on the second day of the search off Indonesia’s northern coast, the Disaster Victim Identification Unit said it had received 24 body bags with 87 body parts, while two body bags that arrived today are yet to be examined. Family members of passengers who thronged the police hospital where the unit is based provided medical records and DNA samples.
“We still couldn’t identify victims due to the condition of the body parts. We are still waiting for the DNA test results, and we will get that in the next four to eight days,” said Arthur Tampi, chief of the national police’s medical and health division.
At the Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta earlier in the day, officials took up the grim task of separating human remains from plane debris and sodden personal belongings extracted from the Java Sea.