Police Send DVI Team To Jayapura

Jayapura, Papua (Antara Bali) - The National Police Headquarters sent a disaster victim identification (DVI) team to Jayapura on Monday night to help identify the passengers and crew members of the Trigana plane that crashed in Oksob, Papua province.

Papua Provincial Police Chief, Brigadier General Paulus Waterpauw, said on Monday night that the three members of the DVI team were slated to arrive in the Papua provincial capital on Tuesday morning.

He said the provincial police had also deployed five DVI officers and that eight DVI officers would be involved in the identification process.

Two of the five DVI members are dentists and DNA specialists, he said, adding that they would be deployed in Jayapura.

Meanwhile, the chief of the medical section at the Papua provincial police, Senior Commissioner Dr. Raymond, said the presence of DVI members would help identify the victims immediately.      

The Trigana plane, which carried 49 passengers and crew members, had crashed near the Oksob waterfall in the Pegunungan Bintang District on Sunday.

Efforts to evacuate 54 people onboard the Trigana Airways aircraft were hampered by extreme weather on Monday, the chief of the Pegunungan Bintang district police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Yunus Wally, said.

Due to the prevailing bad weather conditions, food packages for members of the ground search and rescue (SAR) team could not reach them via an aerial operation. Instead, the packages would be delivered by a truck before the team undertook the trek, he noted.

A 46-member SAR team had been deployed at the crash site, believed to be located near the Oksob waterfall in the Pegunungan Bintang District area, the Commander of the Wamena military district, Lt. Col. Moh. Aidi, had noted earlier.

According to Indonesia's Ministry of Transportation, the ill-fated ATR aircraft, bearing flight number 267, lost contact on Sunday at 2:55 p.m. local time, during its flight from Jayapura to Oksibil.

The aircraft, piloted by Hasanudin and co-pilot Aryadi, was scheduled to arrive in Oksibil at 3:15 p.m. Eastern Indonesian Time after a 55-minute flight, but failed to do so. (WDY)