Indonesia Confirms A Boeing 737 Plane Carrying 62 People Has Crashed Into The Sea
The plane lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute.
By Sadho Ram — 10 Jan 2021, 12:48 AM
A Boeing 737-524 passenger plane from Sriwijaya Air, Indonesia's third-largest carrier, has crashed minutes after taking off from Jakarta
According to Indonesia's Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, the Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 was believed to have crashed into the sea around Pulau Laki and Pulau Lancang, a Bernama report stated.
Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said that the plane lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute, about four minutes after departure from Indonesia's capital.
The Boeing 737-524, which has a capacity of about 130, was carrying 62 people onboard. Of which, there were 56 passengers.
Of them, 40 were adults, seven were children, and three were infants.
Other six were inactive crew members who were travelling as passengers.
A statement released by the airline said that the remaining six were active crew members.
The 26-year-old plane took off amid a heavy monsoon season rain
The New York Times reported that the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency had found pieces of debris in waters just northwest of Jakarta that it believed may be from the plane's wreckage.
The area where the debris was found is known as the Thousand Islands.
According to BBC, several witnesses said they had seen and heard at least one explosion.
"The plane fell like lightning into the sea and exploded in the water. It was pretty close to us, the shards of a kind of plywood almost hit my ship," a fisherman was quoted as saying by BBC.
Navy divers in Jakarta preparing for a search and rescue operation after Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday.
Image via The New York Times