A coffin carrying the remains of an ill-fated SAM Air flight that crashed in the Papua highlands on June 23, 2023 being transported to an ambulance by authorities at Bhayangkara Hospital in Jayapura, Papua on June 27, 2023. - Antara
JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): Rescuers have recovered the remains of six people from the site of a SAM Air plane crash in Yalimo regency, Papua Highlands, as authorities focus their efforts on identifying the victims.
The airplane crashed on Friday (June 23) just seven minutes after taking off from Elelim Airport in Yalimo. Manned by pilots Hari Permadi and Levi Murib, the plane was carrying four passengers to Poik village, also in the regency. There were no survivors.
The head of the Jayapura Search and Rescue (SAR) Operations Office, Marinus Ohoirat, said that a joint team consisting of six operatives and six military personnel had managed to retrieve the six bodies.
“The joint search-and-rescue team will take the bodies of the victims by helicopter from the crash site to Wamena. After that, the victims will be flown to Jayapura to be identified by the Papua Police’s disaster victim identification [DVI] team," Marinus said, as quoted by Kompas.id.
Local media reported that the plane carrying the remains of the victims arrived in Jayapura on Tuesday afternoon, greeted by grieving family members and employees of SAM Air who were waiting at the airport.
The head of the Papua Police’s medical and health division, Sr. Comr. Nariyana, said on Tuesday that it would take up to two weeks to identify the victims as they had been severely burned.
“Identification will probably use a DNA examination method. We are deploying 30 personnel from the Papua Police DVI team to identify the victims’ remains,” Nariyana said, as quoted by Kompas.com. SAM Air president director Wagus Hidayat, who was present at the Jayapura Airport press conference, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, promising that the company would do everything it could to assist in the identification process.
