Lion Air will resume search for victims of crash that killed 189 people in October

Lion Air announced Monday it was funding a multimillion-dollar search effort using a Dutch company for the second black box and missing victims from doomed flight JT-610. The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, crashing into waters off the north coast of Indonesia’s Java Island and killing all 189 people onboard. Authorities called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash last month, with only 125 people officially identified after tests on human remains that filled some 200 body bags. Following requests from victims’ families, Lion said it had allocated US$2.6m to hire a Dutch company to continue the search with its ship the MPV Everest. “The search operation will focus on the latest coordinates of the crash... with an operational time of 10 consecutive days in December,” the airline said. The MPV Everest, a 142-metre long vessel with state-of-the-art remotely operated vehicles, will arrive near the crash site on Wednesday. Bad weather had delayed its trip from the Malaysian port of Johor Baru.<br/>