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JAKARTA: A Sriwijaya Air plane was suspected of crashing on Saturday (January 9) with more than 60 people on board, Indonesian authorities said.
The plane was heading to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province.
A spokesperson for the Indonesian Ministry of Transport said commercial flight SJY182 took off at around 2.36pm WIB and was scheduled to land in Pontianak at 4.15pm.
“The last contact of the control tower with the plane was at 2:40 p.m., before contact was lost,” the spokesperson said in an exchange on WhatsApp.
A flight tracking map showing Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. (Image: Twitter / Flightradar24)
READ: ‘Waiting for a miracle’: Anxious wait for friends and family after the plane disappeared in Indonesia
Sriwijaya Air, which has about 19 Boeing jets flying to destinations in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, told CNA that there were 62 passengers on board, including 40 adults, 7 children and three babies. A total of 12 airline employees were on the plane, including six who were operating the flight.
The head of the national transport safety committee, Soerjanto Tjahjanto, told a news conference around 10 p.m. Sunday that all the passengers were Indonesian.
“That is why we have not notified other countries apart from the United States (since the plane was a Boeing),” he said.
FlightRadar24 tweeted that the plane had lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute, just four minutes after leaving Jakarta.
The plane is a 27-year-old Boeing 737-500, according to registration details included in the tracking data.
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.”
SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATION
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 (sic) and pieces of metal in the water,” Zulkifli, a security officer, told CNNIndonesia.com.
Relatives of passengers on board who missed Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 await news at Supadio Airport in Pontianak on the Indonesian island of Borneo on January 9, 2021, after contact with the plane was lost shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. (Photo: AFP / Louis Anderson)
Indonesian soldiers are seen at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after a Sriwijaya Air plane with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off, in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 9, 2021. REUTERS / Willy Kurniawan
Rescue agency official Agus Haryono told Reuters debris suspected of being the plane was found in the waters north of Jakarta, but did not confirm that it was from the flight.
At a press conference on Saturday night, Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said: “At 5.30pm Western Indonesian time, the president gave us the order to do everything possible in the search operation and Rescue. Of course, Basarnas is on it. “
Agus said that 50 people were participating in the search and that they would continue searching until evening.
Basarnas’ Deputy for Search and Rescue and Preparedness Operations, Bambang Suryo Aji, also told a news conference that the teams had been deployed to an area around the Laki and Lancang Islands in North Jakarta, where they are believed to have the plane crashed.
Soerjanto said authorities would interview the fishermen who claimed to have seen the plane crash.
“Whether it’s true or not, we’ll see about it tomorrow,” he said.
Also speaking at the nightly press conference with Soerjanto was Transport Ministry spokeswoman Adita Irawati, who said the plane appeared to have deviated from its route shortly before disappearing.
The air traffic controller tried to communicate with the plane, but it disappeared seconds later, he said.
Television footage showed family and friends of people on board the plane crying, praying and hugging as they waited at the Jakarta airport and Pontianak airport.
A staff member near the Sriwijaya Air logo at its ticket office at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia on January 9, 2021 (AP Photo / Tatan Syuflana)
Founded in 2003, the Jakarta-based Sriwijaya Air group primarily flies within Indonesia.
The airline has had a strong safety record so far, with no casualties on board in four incidents recorded in the Aviation Safety Network database, although a farmer was killed when a Boeing 737-200 left the runway in 2008 due to to a hydraulic problem.
The Boeing 737 is the best-selling family of aircraft in the world and has undergone several makeovers since it entered service in 1968.
The 737-500 is two generations of development before the more recent 737 MAX, which has been embroiled in a global safety crisis following the accidents in Indonesia and Ethiopia. It does not use the software system involved in those locks.
Nonetheless, experts say planes like the 737-500 leased by Sriwijaya are being phased out for newer fuel-saving models. Civil aircraft typically have an economic life of 25 years, which means that they become too expensive to keep flying beyond that compared to younger models, but they are designed to last longer.
This is a developing story. Please update for updates.
Additional reporting by Kiki Siregar
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