Liputan6.com, Jakarta The Indonesian Warship (KRI) Bung Tomo at 14.30 pm local time on Monday (05/01/2015), finally rested at Koarmatim pier, Ujung, Surabaya, East Java after a week being on duty to continuously seek for victims of AirAsia QZ8501 around the Karimata Island, Pnagkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan.
As shown on Liputan 6 Malam SCTV, Tuesday early morning coverage (06/01/2015), the warship that was commanded by Colonel Yayan Sofyan has successfully discovered a number of debris and objects belonging to the Aircraft that went missing on 28 December 2014.
The objects that were thought to be coming from the airplane include 2 sets of passenger seats, 1 row containing 3 passenger seats still attached to each other, the emergency exit door, debris of aircraft’s window, 3 backpacks assumed to be the passengers’, clothing, shoes, camera and glasses found inside the backpacks.
According to Colonel Yayan, before the warship heading off to Pelabuhan Tanjung Mas, the KRI Bung Tomo refuelled and took logistics at Semarang, Central Java.
KRI Bung Tomo will temporarily retreat from AirAsia QZ8501 evacuation process and will be replaced by KRI Usman Harun. However, the Commander and cabin crew of KRI Bung Tomo said that they will remain on high alert and will always be ready if backups are needed.
Apart from KRI Bung Tomo, the navy also sends out KRI Banda Aceh to help the evacuation process. This warship has been set as the primary ship where the main command is. KRI Banda Aceh carries hundreds of Indonesian navy crew, paramedics and divers.
KRI Banda Aceh has a leadership role to provide preliminary information to other warships, to do complete sweeping off the locations thought to be where the aircraft crashed down and also became the primary ship to evacuate deceased victims and their belongings and debris of AirAsia QZ8501.
KRI Banda Aceh also authorized a number of foreign warships who have helped the search and evacuation mission. One of them, Takanami, belonging to the Japanese military paid a visit to the KRI Banda Aceh to get an authorization. (Akp/Riz)
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