Lion Air accident: Victims' kin demand recovery of more bodies

Dozens of families of people who were aboard a Lion Air plane that crashed last month in Indonesia demonstrated here on Thursday to urge the Indonesian government and airline to continue their search for bodies.

Placards directed at Indonesian President Joko Widodo in front of the presidential palace stated that there were still 64 bodies yet to be recovered.

At least 189 people, including the flight's Indian captain, Bhavye Suneja, were killed when the 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed into the Java Sea after taking off from Jakarta on October 29.

The demonstrators urged the low-cost carrier to keep its promise of funding the second phase of the search and demanded that compensation from the state and Lion Air be distributed quickly and without additional conditions, Efe news reported.

On November 10, National Search and Rescue Agency Basarnas announced the end of its operations to find bodies around the crash site.

The forensic team said 125 bodies were identified, including those of the Indian pilot and an Italian passenger, from the remains of the victims found.

The second phase of the search will focus on one of the black boxes that remains underwater.

The other black box, which recorded flight data, was found a few days after the accident and was helpful in the investigations into the causes of the accident.

A preliminary report released around the end of the November indicated that the incident may have been caused by erroneous data from the sensors of the aircraft.

Some of the families of the victims had filed lawsuits against Boeing in courts in the US.

--IANS

soni/bg