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A Boeing 737 airliner crashed into the sea after disappearing from radar and sinking 10,000 feet.
The Sriwijaya Air passenger jet lost contact after taking off today from the Indonesian capital Jakarta en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province.
The captain of a local lifeboat claims to have found body parts and aircraft debris while searching for survivors.
Indonesian disaster victim identification officers have also reportedly been seen carrying body bags ashore.
The missing plane had more than 60 people on board, including 10 children.
The Indonesian navy says it has ascertained the last known coordinates of the missing plane and that ships are being sent to the area.
Navy officer Abdul Rasyid told reporters: “The coordinates have been found and released to all the Navy ships in the area.”
The photos show rescuers pulling debris out of the water in a desperate search for survivors.
Captain EKo Surya Hadi, commander of a local lifeboat, told reporters on local television that human remains had been found, Mail Online reports.
He said: “We found body parts, life jackets, avtur (aviation turbine fuel) and debris from the plane.”
An Indonesian rescue agency confirmed that suspicious remains of the flight had been found.
No beacon signal had been detected, the agency said.
Thousand Island residents said they heard two explosions before finding items in the sea.
The plane has been reported to have dropped 10,000 feet in less than a minute, roughly four minutes after takeoff.
Surachman, a local government official, told Kompas TV that fishermen found what appeared to be the wreckage of a plane in waters north of Jakarta and that a search was underway.
Other channels showed images of suspected remains.
“We found some cables, a piece of jeans and pieces of metal in the water,” Zulkifli, a security official, told CNNIndonesia.com.
The Indonesian Navy has deployed 11 ships to search for the remains underwater.
The plane is not a 737 Max, the Boeing model involved in two major accidents in recent years.
According to AirLive.net, there were 62 people on board: 56 passengers, four crew members, and two pilots.
All aboard the plane were Indonesians, the Indonesian transport safety committee said.
Of the 56 passengers, 46 were adults, seven were children and three were babies. Their nationalities have not been disclosed.
Aviation monitoring service Flightradar24 tweeted: “Sriwijaya Air flight # SJ182 lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute, approximately 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.”
Sriwijaya Air Chief Executive Officer Jefferson Irwin Jauwena told reporters that the aircraft was in good condition and had been delayed 30 minutes before take-off due to heavy rains.
A Boeing spokeswoman said: “We are aware of the Jakarta media reports and are closely monitoring the situation. We are working to collect more information.”
According to CNBC Indonesia, the flight disappeared at 2.40 pm local time, moments after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta airport.
The last location of the plane was in the waters of the Java Sea above Banten province.
The Sriwijaya Air plane lost contact around Lancang Island, Thousand Islands, said the branch’s communications manager and legal at Soekarno-Hatta airport, Haerul Anwar.
At Soekarno-Hatta International Airport it was raining at the time of takeoff for Pontianak, about 740 km (460 miles) away.
Video footage from the airport showed photographs of passengers’ relatives crying as they awaited news of the aircraft’s fate.
The plane was almost 27 years old and was originally flown by carriers in the United States.
The Indonesian Ministry of Transport spokesperson , Adita Irawati confirmed that there was a loss of contact with the Sriwijaya Air plane, reports CNBC Indonesia.
“We are currently under investigation and in coordination with Basarnas and the National Transportation Accident Committee (KNKT),” said Adita.
A Boeing 737 MAX operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed off Jakarta in late 2018, killing all 189 passengers and crew. The plane that lost contact today is a much older model.
Bagus Puruhito, head of the country’s search and rescue agency, Basarnas, said teams had been sent to search the waters north of Jakarta.
The Indonesian Red Cross Society says it has 50 volunteers on standby to help with recovery efforts.
Sriwijaya Air is one of the main Indonesian domestic airlines. It transports more than 1,000,000 passengers per month, from its hub at Soekarno Hatta International Airport to more than 55 destinations in two regional countries, including extraordinary and popular tourist spots in Indonesia.
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