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Indonesia: Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 plane missing, loses contact after take-off

The authorities lost contact with the plane after it took off from Jakarta

An Indonesian Sriwijaya Air plane is feared to have crashed into the sea after the Boeing 737 lost contact with air traffic control in the capital Jakarta, with flight tracking data showing the jet plunged into a steep dive just four minutes after take-off.

The passenger jet reportedly had 62 people on board, including crew. Authorities have started search and rescue operations for the missing plane, according to Adita Irawati, a spokeswoman for the transport ministry. "It last made contact at 2:40 pm (0740 GMT)."

Data from FlightRadar24 said the plane reached an altitude of nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) before dropping to 250 feet. It then lost contact with air traffic control. "Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta," the tracking agency said on its official Twitter account.

Sriwijaya Air was established in November 2003. Its fleet is comprised of Boeing 737 family and ATR 72-600 jets. While the company primarily serves domestic routes it does fly internationally to Penang, Malaysia and Dili, East Timor.

Reports of debris

Agus Haryono, a rescue agency official, told Reuters that a search and rescue team had found 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, said in a statement it is still gathering more detailed information regarding the flight before it can make a fuller statement.

Surachman, a local government official, told Kompas TV that fishermen found what appeared to be the wreckage. Other channels showed pictures of suspected wreckage. "We found some cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal on the water," Zulkifli, a security official, told CNNIndonesia.com.

Nurhasan, a fisherman in the area known as Thousand Islands, told local media that he and his crew had found several pieces of metal.

A Boeing spokeswoman said, "We are aware of media reports from Jakarta, and are closely monitoring the situation. We are working to gather more information".

The Boeing 737-500 that took off from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta international airport has a capacity of about 130. The budget airline said only it was investigating the incident.

A plane flying from Jakarta to Pontianak would spend most of the flight over the Java Sea. There was still no sign of the missing plane as night fell. The usual flight time is about 90 minutes. The aircraft was scheduled to take off from Jakarta at 1.40 p.m. local time, the FlightRadar24 website showed. Sriwijaya Air representatives couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Pontianak is a city on the island of Borneo, part of the Indonesian archipelago.

Transportation accidents in Indonesia

In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX jet slammed into the Java Sea about 12 minutes after take-off from Jakarta on a routine one-hour flight.

That crash - and a subsequent fatal flight in Ethiopia - saw Boeing hit with $2.5 billion in fines over claims it defrauded regulators overseeing the 737 MAX model, which was grounded worldwide following the two deadly crashes.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, with more than 260 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents on land, sea and air because of overcrowding on ferries, aging infrastructure and poorly enforced safety standards.