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JAKARTA: A Sriwijaya Air plane with 62 people on board crashed today in the waters of Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands) off western Java.
No Malaysian nationals were on board, according to the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta.
Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi in a press broadcast tonight said the plane is believed to have sunk in the sea around Pulau Laki and Pulau Lancang, in the waters off Kepulauan Seribu. The area is part of the administrative area of the capital city of Jakarta.
The Boeing 737 aircraft, carrying 62 passengers and crew, was reported to have lost contact with the control tower after taking off from Soekarno Hatta Airport, Jakarta, bound for Pontianak, Borneo.
The aircraft’s last contact with the control tower was at 2:40 p.m. EDT.
Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas said the search approach now was to detect the coordinates of the plane crash. “We hope to find the location of the plane crash tonight before search and rescue efforts resume tomorrow morning,” said Bambang Suryo Aji, a Basarnas official.
