Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air plane feared to have crashed after taking off from Jakarta
A Sriwijaya Air jetliner carrying 62 people on board is feared to have crashed shortly after taking off from Jakarta, according to the head of Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee, Suryanto Cahyono.
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 from Jakarta to Pontianak, in Indonesian Borneo, lost contact at 2:40 p.m. Western Indonesian Time (2:40 a.m. ET) on Saturday.
Maj. Gen Bambang Suryo Aji of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, Basarnas, told reporters on Saturday that the plane is believed to have crashed between the islands of Laki and Lancang, in the Thousand Islands chain northwest of the capital, Jakarta. Basarnas is now conducting a search operation.