Rafik Yusuf Alaydrus’s wife, Panca Widia Nursanti, messaged him on WhatsApp as she sat on board the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 flight. The weather in Jakarta was bad, she said. It was raining heavily and the flight, bound for Pontianak on Borneo island, had been delayed for an hour by the poor conditions.
As she waited for takeoff on Saturday, Panca told him she had a bad feeling, and asked him to pray for her. “I tried to calm her down, saying that I would pray for her, and asked her to pray during flight. Inshallah she would be safe,” he said.
That afternoon, Rafik drove to the airport in Pontianak to collect her. At 3.30pm he listened for an announcement about the flight’s arrival, but there was none. Airport officers told him they were waiting for information. When Rafik checked online, he saw news reports that the flight had gone missing.
Within minutes of taking off from Jakarta’s main airport, the plane, carrying 62 people, had plunged into the Java Sea. Data from the flight tracker FlightRadar24 showed it had reached an altitude of nearly 11,000ft (3,350 metres) before dropping to 250ft.
The cause of the crash remains unclear. The crew did not declare an emergency or report technical problems before the plane’s sudden descent, according to investigators, who believe the plane was most likely intact when it hit the water. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-500, is much older than Boeing’s 737 Max model, which was involved in deadly crashes in both Indonesia and Ethiopia.
On Monday, Indonesian navy divers searched for the black boxes, which it is hoped will contain crucial clues as to why the plane went down.
So far, plane wheels, part of the plane’s fuselage, landing gear and clothing have been discovered. Human remains have also been found, but there has been no sign of survivors.
Panca, a teacher who had travelled to Jakarta to visit her parents, was one of 50 passengers on the flight, which also carried 12 crew. Among those on board were 10 children and babies, pregnant women, a newlywed couple bound for their wedding celebration, and people travelling for business.
The plane’s captain was Afwan, 54, who had previously spent a decade flying for the Indonesian air force, according to local media. The profile of one of his social media accounts was reported to be a picture of Superman, accompanied with the text: “No matter how high you fly, you won’t reach heaven if you don’t pray five times a day”. Afwan, a devout Muslim who used just one name, was married with three children.
Relatives are anxiously waiting for news. On Monday, the first victim, who was identified by his fingerprints, was named by police as Okky Bisma, a flight attendant.
Indonesia plane crash: divers to retrieve black boxes from Sriwijaya Air flight 182
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“We hope that there is still hope that we can still bring their bodies home, we can still bury them properly in our home town,” said Slamet Bowo Santoso, whose older brother Mulyadi Tamsir, 40, was on the flight, along with his wife, Makrufatul Yeti Sriyaningsih, and her family.
Mulyadi Tamsir had married Makrufatul just months ago, and the couple were about to start a new life together. They had travelled to Jakarta to visit a shophouse, where Makrufatul planned to launch a wedding planning business. On Friday, the last time Mulyadi spoke to his family, he told his mother that Makrufatul was two weeks pregnant. The couple were travelling with Makrufatul’s mother and sister.
Mulyadi was an assertive and determined person, Bowo said. “Between the three of us [brothers], only Mulyadi can live in Jakarta, with those harsh conditions of that metropolitan city. We all live in a small city, but he can survive in the big city and build his career there. I will always remember that about him.”
Indonesia plane crash map
Mulyadi was the chairman of the Association of Islamic Students (HMI) in Indonesia from 2015 until 2018, but had since become a politician from the People’s Conscience party, Bowo added.
The search for black boxes, which are thought to be buried under piles of sharp debris at the bottom of the Java Sea, continued until darkness fell on Monday. It is hoped that the boxes – which contain recordings of cockpit conversations and flight data – will help investigators determine what went wrong.
There have long been concerns over safety in Indonesia’s aviation industry, which expanded rapidly with poor oversight and has been plagued by accidents.
As the search continues, some relatives have given blood for DNA analysis so that victims can be identified.
Rafik, who has been married to Panca for 23 years, described her as cheerful and funny. A teacher at a vocational high school, she was loved by students because she made them laugh, he said. “They call her ‘guru gaul’ [friendly teacher] because she is really sociable and fun, and she sees her students as her friends,”’ he said.
“For me, since she was gone, I still can’t grasp it because I lost her too suddenly,” he said: “But I promised to Allah that I will accept this fate and I will let her go.”
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