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BANGKOK A passenger jet carrying more than 60 people crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday, minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, Indonesian officials said, bringing renewed attention to a nation long cursed by aviation disasters.
The fate of the plane, a Boeing 737-500, also carried the potential to ensnare the troubled American aviation giant in more bad publicity, even though the cause of the crash had yet to be determined.
Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry said that the last contact with the plane, Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, was at 2:40 p.m. local time. The plane was bound for the city of Pontianak on the island of Borneo. It had 62 people aboard, according to the Transportation Ministry. Four minutes after taking off amid a heavy monsoon season rain, following a bad weather delay, the 26-year-old plane lost more than 10,000 feet in altitude in less than 60 seconds, according to Flightradar24, the flight-tracking service.
The Boeing 737-500, a Sriwijaya Air flight, had taken off from Jakarta, the capital. Officials said they found body parts and possibly part of the wreckage.
Updated Jan 09, 2021 · 09:09 pm A March 18, 2013, photo shows an Indonesian Sriwijaya air plane preparing for landing. | AFP
An Indonesian Sriwijaya Air plane with 62 people on board is suspected to have crashed after it went missing following its takeoff from capital Jakarta on Saturday, AFP reported. The plane was en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province.
At a news conference, Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya said that 62 people – 43 adults and 7 children – had been aboard, including 12 crew members. Earlier, an official had said that the plane was carrying 56 passengers and six crew members.
Bambang Suryo Aji of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas, told reporters that that the plane is believed to have crashed between the islands of Laki and Lancang, in the Thousand Islands chain, northwest of Jakarta, CNN reported.
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