Jakarta:
A Sriwijaya Air plane believed to have 62 individuals on board lost speak to soon after taking off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on Saturday and rescuers mentioned suspected debris had been identified in the sea off the city.
The Boeing 737-500, en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan, lost speak to shortly soon after taking off just soon after 2.30 p.m. (0730 GMT), a search and rescue official told nearby tv.
There had been 56 passengers on board, which includes 10 kids, an official of the national search and rescue agency Basarnas mentioned. Local media mentioned there had been six crew.
Reliable tracking service Flightradar24 mentioned on its Twitter feed that Flight SJ182 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta”.
Agus Haryono, a rescue agency official, told Reuters that a search and rescue group had identified debris suspected to be from the plane in the waters north of Jakarta, but it had not been confirmed that it was from the flight.
Sriwijaya Air, an Indonesian airline, mentioned in a statement it is nevertheless gathering more detailed facts concerning the flight prior to it can make a fuller statement.
A Boeing spokeswoman mentioned, “We are aware of media reports from Jakarta, and are closely monitoring the situation. We are working to gather more information”.
Surachman, a nearby government official, told Kompas Television that fishermen identified what appeared to be the wreckage. Other channels showed photos of suspected wreckage.
“We found some cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal on the water,” Zulkifli, a safety official, told CNNIndonesia.com.
Nurhasan, a fisherman in the location identified as Thousand Islands, told nearby media that he and his crew had identified many pieces of metal.
The aircraft was 27 years old, according to registration specifics integrated in the Flightradar24 tracking information.
It was raining at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at the time of take-off for Pontianak, about 740 km (460 miles) away.
Video photos from the airport showed photos of relatives of the passengers in tears as they awaited news of the fate of the aircraft.
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 speak to on Saturday is a significantly older model.
SEARCH OPERATION
Rescue official Agus mentioned 50 individuals had been taking element in the search and that they would retain browsing into the evening.
Founded in 2003, Jakarta-primarily based Sriwijaya Air group flies largely inside Indonesia.
The airline has a strong security record till now, with no onboard casualties in 4 incidents recorded on the Aviation Safety Network database, even though a farmer was killed when a Boeing 737-200 left the runway in 2008 following a hydraulic dilemma.
The Boeing 737 is the world’s most-sold household of aircraft and has undergone many makeovers considering the fact that it entered service in 1968.
The 737-500 is two generations of improvement prior to the most current 737 MAX, which has been embroiled in a worldwide security crisis following crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. It does not use the software program method implicated in these crashes.
Nonetheless, authorities say planes such as Sriwijaya’s leased 737-500 are getting phased out for newer fuel-saving models. Civil jets commonly have an financial life of 25 years, which means they turn into also pricey to retain flying beyond that compared to younger models, but they are constructed to final longer.
(This story has not been edited by employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)