JAKARTA -- The radius of the third-day search for the Lion Air commercial aircraft which crashed on Monday has been further expanded with the hope of finding the wreckage of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and its black box.
Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) deputy of operations, Nugroho Budi Wiryanto, said the search operation now covered areas within a 15 nautical mile radius from the coordinate of the crash.
"On the first day, the search radius was five nautical miles, second day was 10 nautical miles and for the third day search today, it is 15 nautical miles,” he added.
Lion Air Flight JT610, carrying 181 passengers and eight crew, went missing minutes after taking off at 6.20 am (7.20 am in Malaysia) from the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta for the Depati Amir Airport in Pangkal Pinang, Pulau Bangka Belitung, Sumatera.
The aircraft was scheduled to arrive at the Depati Amir airport at 7.10 am (8.10 am in Malaysia).
The round-the-clock operation involve the armed forces, police and Basarnas, as well as a diving team with the use of 35 vessels, three helicopters and three aircraft, Bernama reports.
Sophisticated equipment such as multibeam echo sounder, side scan sonar, magnetometer and remotely operated vehicles (ROV) are also being used in the operation to detect the wreckage of the aircraft.
So far, 37 bags containing human remains had been sent to the Indonesian Police Hospital for identification.
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