Team finds body parts of plane crash victims, identifies one

A search and rescue team tasked with evacuating victims of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crash found the bodies of victims scattered in pieces during the search process on Friday afternoon.

“We found no single body intact. Everything was scattered with burn injuries,” said a volunteer who took part in the evacuation, Eko Prasetyo, to The Jakarta Post over the phone late on Friday.

He said the team had recovered seven body pieces in four body bags from a depth of around 350 meters and had evacuated them to Mt. Salak’s summit I.

Summit I stands at 2,211 meters above the sea level.

According to Eko, the team spotted more body parts and plane debris at depths of 200 to 300 meters from the location where they found the first body parts.

The team planned to continue the evacuation on Saturday, he said.

Eko added that the team had managed to identify one of the victims.

“In the trousers, there was a wallet inside one of the pockets. There was a citizenship card inside the wallet belonging to [one of the victims],” he said.

The team, he said, also found many ATM and citizenship cards spread in the vicinity, and a plane seat with a parachute attached to it.

“But there was nothing on the seat,” said the local volunteer from Cidahu, Sukabumi, West Java.

The Russian-made aircraft crashed in the foothills of Mt. Salak in Cidahu on Wednesday afternoon and was found at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday, having sustained “major damage”.

The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) confirmed on Friday afternoon that 12 bodies had been recovered from the crash site.

A number of search and rescue team members are reportedly staying at summit I to watch over the recovered bodies, with very limited food and drink supplies on hand.