A Sriwijaya Air passenger jet carrying 62 people lost contact with air traffic controllers after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Saturday on a domestic flight, officials said.
Indonesia's transport minister said the flight with 62 passengers and crew is suspected to have crashed into the sea. There are 56 passengers and six crew members onboard the 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia's Borneo island.
Sriwijaya Air flight lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute
According to initial reports, the Sriwijaya Air flight lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, four minutes after it took off from the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. Its last known location was at 11,000 feet.
Indonesian authorities have launched a search and rescue operation to confirm the location of a Boeing 737-500 'classic' which was headed from Jakarta to Pontianak. The aircraft, Sriwijaya Air SJ-182, is a Boeing 737-500 with the registration number PK-CLC (MSN 27323).
"The missing plane is currently under investigation and under coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee," Irawati said in a statement. Debris has been found in the area where search and rescue operations for Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 are being conducted, but there is no confirmation they belong to the Boeing 737 aircraft.
Sriwijaya Air, an Indonesian airline, said in a statement it was gathering more detailed information regarding the flight before it could make a fuller statement.
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".
Search operation underway
Bagus Puruhito, head of the country's search and rescue agency Basarnas, said teams had been dispatched to search the waters north of Jakarta. No radio beacon signal had been detected, the agency said.
Agus Haryono, another official with the agency, told that debris suspected to be from the plane had been found in the sea, but it had not been confirmed that it came from the missing flight. Rescue official said 50 people were taking part in the search and that they would search into the night.
Founded in 2003, Jakarta-based Sriwijaya Air group flies largely within Indonesia. The airline has a solid safety record until now, with no onboard casualties in four incidents recorded on the Aviation Safety Network database, though a farmer was killed when a Boeing 737-200 left the runway in 2008 following a hydraulic problem.
The Boeing 737 is the world's most-sold family of aircraft and has undergone several makeovers since it entered service in 1968.
