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Distraught families mourn members lost in Sriwijaya crash
“Heading back to Pontianak, guys! We’re now in the airport,” said Athar Rizki Riawan, 8, as he recorded himself at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, before boarding Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182.
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Aldha Refa, the wife of Okky Bisma, a flight attendant and one of the 62 people aboard Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 which crashed shortly after takeoff on January 9, grieves at his funeral in Jakarta on January 14, 2021. (Agence France-Presse/Bay Ismoyo)
“Heading back to Pontianak, guys! We’re now in the airport,” said 8-year-old Athar Rizki Riawan as he recorded himself playing around in Banten’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, before boarding Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 on Saturday.
Athar was among 10 children on the plane that plunged into the Java Sea minutes after taking off, as was 2-year-old Yumma Fanisyatuzahra, his second cousin whose pink Minnie Mouse hoodie was later found intact by navy divers.
The crash has ripped a gaping hole in their family since Yumma’s mother Ratih Windania, as well as her grandparents Toni Ismail and Rahmawati, were also on the same plane, among the 40 adult passengers and 12 crew members who perished.
The five victims had gone on vacation to West Java’s Bandung in late December and had planned to go back to West Kalimantan on New Year’s Day. They postponed the plan until they underwent COVID-19 swab tests as required for air travel.
Athar’s father, Iwan Kurniawan, is desperately hoping that there will be a bright spot in the midst of a search shrouded in uncertainty.
“While the airline and the authorities have yet to confirm that their bodies have been found, we are still hoping that some of them survived,” Iwan told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Read also: Flight SJ182: World offers condolences to heartbreaking Indonesian airplane tragedy
