Three Australians dead but unidentified – two missing presumed dead
Australian media and wire reports say that 7 victims of yesterday’s Garuda Indonesia aircraft crash in Yogyakarta have been formally identified by forensic experts, with Indonesian authorities saying they have identified the bodies of 7 of the 21 victims taken to the morgue and are close to formally identifying the bodies of 3 Australians, with 2 other Australians missing, feared dead.
Australian forensic officers are helping the Indonesian authorities identify victims, who are waiting for dental records from Australia and a whiteboard outside the morgue lists the names of seven Indonesians who have been formally identified.
Investigators are continuing to comb the site of the crash today and Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Greg Hunt today has said that a flight carrying Australian personnel had landed in Indonesia to assist with victims and the investigation and another two flights, including one carrying specialist burns doctor Fiona Wood, left for Indonesia this morning.
The Mole reported this morning that Sydney Morning Herald journalist Cynthia Banham has been evacuated to Perth with serious back injuries and burns to 60% of her body and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has said that another Australian, believed to be 63-year-old businessman Roger Tallboys, was being flown to Singapore for medical treatment.
There were 10 Australians on the flight, with the 3 dead and 2 missing, presumed dead as a result of the crash.
Morgan Mellish, the Australian Financial Review’s Jakarta correspondent, is one of the five Australians still missing, feared dead, with Indonesian officials saying they found his identification card on one of bodies.
The other four missing are:
Elizabeth O’Neill, Public Affairs Counsellor at the Australian embassy in Jakarta;
Alison Sudrajat, AusAid’s most senior official in Indonesia,
Federal Agent Mark Scott; and
Brice Steele, an AFP liaison officer based in Jakarta.
In Indonesia, the the state news agency Antara said that at least two Australians were among the dead – a financial reporter and an embassy employee.
It is also reported that the black box from the aircraft has been recovered and is being sent to Australia for analysis, with Garuda CEO Emirsyah Satar saying, “The black box will be taken to Australia and will be read there,” Satar said.
He also confirmed that 111 people had survived the crash, with 21 dead and two still missing, adding that the condition of the aircraft prior to the crash was satisfactory.
A representative from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) will take the black box to Canberra.
Report by The Mole from material by The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, Reuters and AAP
John Alwyn-Jones
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