Wednesday, January 21, 2015

THE DIVERS



Lately, I've been reading about the indonesian divers struggling in the Java Sea to recover pieces of the Air Asia jet and dead bodies of the passengers and crew that were on that unfortunate plane crashed on 28 December 2014.

Java Sea is a shallow sea which lies beteen the indonesian islands  of Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi.(see the blue contour in the above Web picture).
Historically, it is known for 'the Battle of Java Sea' in World War 2,  when the naval allied forces were defeated by the japanese( on February 1942).

The divers were (still are, as not all bodies have been recovered) struggling not only with bad weather conditions, but also with the sights of disaster and death. Their task was not merely to locate and retrieve objects and bodies , but also to assess possibilities and take hard decisions on the spot.
It is easy for us to say "someone has to do the job", but it's terrible for those who actually do it. It might traumatize their whole life.

Anyway, the divers' struggle with the sea and weather will in its end allow a decent burial to the the victims, bring closure to their families,  make it, perhaps, possible (through the analysis of the recovered  'black boxes'), to learn ways of preventing such catastrophies in the future.


These people- the divers, deserve our highest esteem and appreciation for their efforts.