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Sriwijaya Air’s 62-person Boeing 737-500, lost contact, was suspected of crashing in waters off Jakarta minutes after taking off from the capital today.
Sriwijaya Air’s flight number SJ 182 lost contact at 2:40 p.m., 11 nautical miles from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, at an altitude of 3,350 meters, while en route from Jakarta to Pontianak, according to the airline. Tons of Antara state.
FlightRadar24 said the plane lost 3,000 meters of altitude in one minute before disappearing from radar, about four minutes after takeoff. Local media said the plane was carrying 62 people, including 56 passengers and 6 crew members. It was raining at the time of departure.
The family of the airliner waits for news at Supadio airport in Pontianak on January 9. Image: AFP.
Indonesian officials sent the ship to the last known position of the plane in the Java Sea. Approximately 50 people joined the search effort.
Surachman, a local government official, said fishermen discovered what could be debris from the plane in waters north of Jakarta. “We found some cables, jeans and a piece of metal in the water,” said security officer Zulkifli. The authorities have not confirmed that these objects are from the Sriwijaya Air plane.
The representative for Sriwijaya Air said they were gathering more details about the flight before being able to make a statement. The Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Commission are investigating the incident.
The suspicious object from the SJ 182 plane was found in waters north of Jakarta. Image: Aeronews.
In October 2018, 189 people were killed when Lion Air’s Boeing 737 MAX sank in the Java Sea about 12 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta. The Boeing 737-500 that crashed today is a much older model that has been in service for 27 years.
Experts say that planes like the 737-500 are being phased out in favor of newer fuel-efficient models. Civil aircraft typically have an economic life of 25 years, which means that after 25 years, they are more expensive to operate compared to newer models. However, they are still tough enough to last longer than that.
Sriwijaya Air is a Jakarta-based low-cost airline established in 2003, operating mainly domestic and Southeast Asian flights, and owning around 19 Boeing aircraft.
Location of Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta. Graphics: The commons.
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Phuong vu (According to the Reuters)
