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ational Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) chief Tatang Kurniadi said that the country had the capability to examine the black box of the Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed last week.

“We have an advanced laboratory in Gambir to examine the black box,” Tatang said.

He also said that it was customary for the local transportation safety agency to examine data from the black box from a crash that happened in its territory. “It is international procedure that any air crash that takes place in a country should be investigated by and in that country,” Tatang told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the Russian experts would only play a role as accredited representatives who would monitor and might assist Indonesia during the examination.

Separately, a senior minister said on Tuesday that the Indonesian government would pay Rp 50 million (US$5,400) in compensation to each of the families of the crash victims.

Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister Agung Laksono was quoted by kompas.com as saying that the compensation would be provided by the state-owned insurance company PT Jasa Raharja.

While the company’s policy stipulated that insurance services should only be provided for regular flights, the minister said that the government had made an exception out of “compassion for the victims’ grieving families”.

“We will pay the compensation immediately after the identification process is completed,” he said.

Agung insisted that the government’s compensation was separate from the compensation that would be paid out by the airplane’s production company, Russia-based Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association. The minister claimed that the company had agreed to pay US$50,000 in compensation to each of the victims’ families.

The airliner, with 45 people onboard, disappeared from radar screens at 2:33 p.m. last Wednesday on an exhibition flight. An Air Force helicopter spotted its wreckage at an altitude of 5,800 feet in the foothills of Mt. Salak in Cidahu, Sukabumi, at 9:15 a.m. the following day.

Eight Russian crew members, one American passenger and one French citizen were onboard along with 35 Indonesian passengers.

On Tuesday, a member of the Russian Transportation Safety Board denied rumors that the ill-fated jet was equipped with an ejection seat and that the plane’s pilot was found with a parachute strapped to his body.

The Russian official Sergey Korostiev said that what was mistakenly identified as a parachute was only a survival kit prepared in case of an emergency landing.

Meanwhile, the National Police Spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said that the rescue team had sent 28 body bags to the Raden Said Sukanto National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati in East Jakarta as of Tuesday afternoon.

“Three more body bags were sent to the hospital on Tuesday. So we have 28 body bags thus far, four of which contained belongings that will be used for victim identification,” he said.

Boy said that the identification team would examine the remains thoroughly before announcing the identity of the victims to their families, probably next week.

The team is currently working on categorizing the body parts according to similarity. The methods used are fingerprint identification, forensic pathology, forensic anthropology, forensic odontology and DNA.

Boy estimated that 40 percent of the process had been completed.

Also on Tuesday, an individual identified only as YS, who was alleged to have distributed fake photos of the Sukhoi crash victims, turned himself in to the police.

Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Sutarman said that his unit was still questioning the individual before determining what charges, if any, it would press against him. (fzm)