Following the crash of the Sriwijaya Air flight 182 on Saturday 9 January 2021, the KRI 933 RIGEL, designed and built by OCEA Shipyard France, was deployed to search for the black boxes of the Boeing 737 that crashed in the Java sea, off the coast of Jakarta.

The KRI 933 RIGEL was able to quickly locate one of the two black boxes thanks to its underwater multiinfluences low signatures, before it is retrieved by the Remotely Operated underwater Vehicle (ROV).

The Ministry of Defense, Army Chief of Staff and Chief of Navy were on board the vessel to coordinate the research operations.

After having found and brought back the black box of the Lion Air flight which crashed in October 2018, the recovery of the black box of the Sriwijaya Air flight is the second success of the Indonesian Navy with the KRI 933 RIGEL in this type of operation.

The KRI 933 RIGEL and its sister-ship the KRI 934 SPICA were built in France by OCEA Shipyard and delivered in 2015 to the Indonesian Navy. These two 60 m Oceanographic and Hydrographic research vessels (type OCEA OSV 190 SC-WB) from OCEA’s Auxiliary Range, are “the most modern in Asia”, as stated by the Indonesian Navy.

The KRI 933 RIGEL and the KRI 934 SPICA benefitted from OCEA’s French Technology developed, through continuous innovation, over more than 30 years. The qualities, which were proven during the trials were confirmed by today’s results:

•    the excellent sea keeping of the OSV platform,
•    very reduced noise
•    high quality of the data collected even at high speed and in rough seas.

Within the frame of a technical agreement between SHOM and OCEA the vessels demonstrated their efficiency and capabilities as described in the article of “Hydro International” (May/June 2016).

Thus, OCEA OSVs KRI 933 RIGEL and KRI 934 SPICA are equipped with the most up-to-date, accurate and high-performance sensors, to meet all mission requirements in coastal, deep sea and offshore waters. In particular, ROV and AUV operations allow very high accuracy underwater exploration and deepwater intervention up to 1000m depth.