Jakarta – Grieving relatives of the 102 people on board an Indonesian airliner which vanished on New Year's day have held an emotional ceremony at sea over the spot where its "black box" flight recorders were found.
Indonesian navy hospital ship KRI Dalpele carried 151 relatives of the passengers and crew to cast flowers onto the ocean waters and pay their last respects. A US Navy ocean survey ship found the black boxes from the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 on the ocean floor off the west of Sulawesi island at a depth of around 2,000 metres (6,600 feet).
But the boxes, which could hold vital clues to the disaster, are yet to be recovered. No bodies and only small parts of the plane have been found.
"Representatives from all of the families went for the ceremony except the family of pilot Refri Widodo," Adam Air spokeswoman Susianti Dewi was quoted by the state news agency Antara as saying Saturday.
The plane was carrying 96 passengers – including an American and his two daughters – and six crew when it vanished from radar screens during a routine flight from the island of Java to Sulawesi.
Tears flowed during the ceremony and one woman became hysterical and tried to jump off the ship, detikcom news portal reported.
The ceremony was delayed from Tuesday as some relatives said they had not abandoned all hope for their loved ones.
The KRI Dalpele was expected to return to the main city of Makassar in South Sulawesi late Saturday afternoon.
Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said the ceremony did not signal the end of the massive search for the wreckage. "Search efforts on the seabed have ended but not on the surface," he said. "The national transportation safety committee is still looking at the best technology to recover the black boxes and lift the plane wreck."
Rajasa earlier in the week said Indonesia did not have the technology to retrieve objects from such a great depth and was looking to the United States, France or Japan for help in recovering the black boxes. In comparison, the wreck of the Titanic, which sank in 1912, was located at a depth of 3,800 metres using an unmanned submersible.
A section of tailfin found by a fisherman is the largest piece of the Adam Air plane found so far. Dozens of fragments and other debris such as tray tables have been washed up on beaches or plucked from the sea, but no larger wreckage or bodies have been retrieved.
It is not yet known what caused the crash but retrieving the black boxes which record flight data and cockpit communications should help the investigation. The pilot did not send a distress call but reported that the plane was being buffeted by cross-winds shortly before it disappeared from radar.
The search for the plane was marred by an embarrassing mix-up when officials wrongly reported wreckage and survivors had been found on a mountainside a day after it went missing.