REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - A Search and Rescue (SAR) team aboard a helicopter on Thursday morning spotted the wreckage of the Sukhoi Superjet that had crashed into a cliff on Mount Salak on Wednesday afternoon.
“The scattered debris shows total crash. The color of Sukhoi logo seen in the body was the same with the missing one,” the Head of National Search and Rescue (SAR), Marsma Daryatmo said in Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.
The plane crash site was located at the coordinates 06.42.612 and 1064441.2, around 3.5 kilometres from the Cijeruk command post, Bogor district, West Java, reported the chief coordinator of the Mount Halimun Salak National Park, Ketut Purwa, on Thursday. The search helicopter spotted the wreckage from a height of 2,500 feet.
“It takes five hours on foot. Seeing the complex terrain, it is hard to evacuate by air,” Parwa predicted. "We are immediately heading to the location," the chief coordinator added.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100 was carrying 48 people -including potential buyers and journalists- on a demonstration flight, when it dropped off the radar just 21 minutes after take-off on Wednesday.
The Sukhoi had taken off from Halim Perdanakusumah air force base in eastern Jakarta at 2:21 pm on Wednesday, and was lost to the radar within 21 minutes. At that time, it was flying in a drizzle near Mount Salak.
The Sukhoi reportedly dropped off the radar shortly after the crew asked air traffic control for permission to drop from an altitude of 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 metres to 1,800 metres).
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