The remains of six victims of the Merpati MA flight that crashed into the sea on Saturday have been identified by staff at the Kaimana public hospital.
The six victims that have been identified are ri Ruru, Amier Kurita, Noldi Huliselan, Heron Salossa, Chen Bofeng and pilot Purwadi Wahyo.
Hospital staff are still trying to identify 19 other victims of the plane crash.
“The medical team is still busy trying to identify the victims, as some of their bodies are no longer intact. The families of the victims have started to arrive [at the hospital] but they are not allowed to see the condition of the victims,” said Kaimana resident Risdo on Saturday.
He added that it had been raining heavily over Kaimana since early morning.
The Merpati airplane, flight number MZ 8968, crashed into the sea near the Utarung Kaimana Airport, West Papua, at approximately 2 p.m on Saturday.
The airplane normally plies the Sorong-Kaimana-Nabire-Biak route, and left the Sorong Airport at 12:40 p.m local time and was scheduled to arrive at the Utarung Kaimana Airport at 2:10 p.m local time.