Siriwijaya air crash: Family of five, pregnant lady, 2 month old infant were in the ill fated flight

Siriwijaya air crash: Family of five, pregnant lady, 2 month old infant were in the ill fated flight

 

Tragic stories of the victims of the Siriwijaya air crash are being unfolded as relatives come to identify their loved ones.  On Sunday, family members gathered at a victim identification center in Jakarta and at crisis center in Pontianak, where they waited any news of their loved ones.

A couple Agus Minarni and Muhammad Nur Kholifatul Amin who were booked to fly two days earlier were denied boarding at the airport stating that they had to take the PCR test. They were returning after attending a funeral. The couple obliged took the test and boarded the next available flight two days later after receiving their reports. Since they were in a hurry to go they changed the airlines and boarded the ill fated Siriwijaya flight.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency team are continuing a search operation for the 62 passengers of Sriwijaya Air flight 182, which crashed into the ocean shortly after takeoff on Saturday.

The Boeing 737-500 plane was heading from Jakarta to the city of Pontianak, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, when it lost contact at 2:40 p.m. local time (2:40 a.m. ET), 11 nautical miles north of Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

There were 50 passengers 43 adults and 7 children on board, as well as 12 crew members, according to Indonesia's Minister of Transportation.

A family of five from Bangka island are missing and feared dead. The family released a statement on Saturday saying that 26-year-old Rizki Wahyudi, his 26-year-old wife Indah Halimah Putri, and their 7-month-old son were on the flight that crashed. Wahyudi's mother and cousin were also on the flight with them.

Ratih Windania, who was four months' pregnant, was visiting family members in Jakarta with her 2-year-old daughter Yumna, 8-year-old nephew Athar Rizki Riawan, uncle Tony Islmail and aunt Rachmawati, according to Riawan's father Iwan. 

Yohanes Suherdi was in Jakarta on a business trip and looking forward to returning to his family in Ngarak, a village several hours from Pontianak airport. His wife, Susilawati Bungahilaria, 32, hopes Suherdi will be found safe and that the family will be able to reunite soon. The couple has a 5-year-old son, Rian Gusti Rafael.

Meanwhile, rescuers searching for the wreckage of an Indonesian passenger jet that crashed into the ocean with 62 people on board on Saturday say they have located the plane's black box flight recorder and obtained communications data.

The head of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) said late on Sunday evening that the two black boxes from Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 are believed have been detected within 150 to 200 meters (492 to 656 feet) of the crash site and that search and rescue operations are continuing around the clock.

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