Basarnas Recruits Traditional Divers in AirAsia Fuselage Recovery
22 January 2015 14:44 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Pangkalan Bun – The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has recruited 15 traditional divers to help them evacuate the fuselage of the ill-fated AirAsia QZ8501. The divers will be immediately transported to Indonesian warship KRI Banda Aceh to join the recovery team.
Basarnas operations chief First Marshal S.B. Supriyadi said the traditional divers were tasked to help get the fuselage onboard the barge that had been prepared at the recovery site.
Supriyadi said Basarnas had borrowed the barge from an oil palm plantation to carry the fuselage, whose total weight had been estimated at 30 tons.
“We will try to lift the fuselage, and then get it onboard the barge. The traditional divers will help us,” he said in Pangkalan Bun on Thursday, January 22, 2015.
To date, the recovery team has yet to reach the plane’s fuselage, which is located some 28 meters below sea level on the seabed of Karimata Strait. The team comprises 81 joint personnel from the Indonesian Navy and Basarnas’ Special Group.
ROSALINA