By Iqbal Musyaffa and Dandy Koswaraputra
Forensic team gets DNA from victims’ relatives, set to be compared to remains retrieved from crash site
Seeking to identify remains from Saturday’s Indonesian passenger plane crash with 62 people on board, a Jakarta hospital has gotten 21 DNA samples from the victims’ families. The Kramat Jati Police Hospital will try to match the DNA samples with several bags of human remains retrieved from the Sriwijaya Air flight crash site, said National Police spokesman Rusdi Hartono on Sunday.
“We ask the families of the victims to help the DVI [Disaster Victim Identification] team to carry out their duties,” Rusdi told a press conference in the capital Jakarta. He said the families of the victims could provide data in the form of diploma documents, family cards, or other materials.
Rusdi added that any information would greatly help the DVI team identify the bodies of the crash victims. According to Rusdi the team includes over 300 police, military, and Health Ministry personnel, plus members of the Indonesian Forensic Expert Association. The remains were found around the underwater crash site, in the Thousand Islands area between the isles of Lancang and Laki.
The domestic flight departed from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport bound for the city of Pontianak in West Borneo when it lost contact within minutes after taking off. It carried 50 passengers, including 10 children, plus 12 crew members.
Source: Anadolu Agency