Indonesian Aircraft, With 62 Passengers Onboard, Feared To Have Crashed - All We Know So Far

Bagus Puruhito, head of the country's search and rescue agency Basarnas, said teams had been dispatched to search the waters north of Jakarta.

(File Photo/ AFP)

New Delhi: Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi, on Saturday, said that a Boeing 737 aircraft that took off from Jakarta, is suspected to have crashed with 62 people on board including 10 children. According to Flightradar24, an aircraft tracking service, flight SJ182 which is operated by Sriwijaya Air lost contact with air traffic control about four minutes after take-off just after 2.30 pm (0730 GMT) on its way to Borneo island. In a series of tweets, Flightradar24 said, "lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta". "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 tweeted. Indonesian Transport Minister told the media, "The total number of passengers was 50 along with 12 crew.”

Here’s Are The Developments About The Aircraft That Vanished Into Thin Air:

1. Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182, which was being operated on a 26-year-old Boeing 737 aircraft, took off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, while it was raining. 2. The plane was bound for Pontianak which is around 740 km away, which took about 90 minutes of flying time over the Java Sea. The suspected crash site is near tourist islands just off the coast of Indonesia's sprawling capital. 3. 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. 4. Agus Haryono, another official with the agency, told Reuters 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. 5. According to a report by CNN Indonesia, cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal have been found on the water, which is being speculated as to the debris of the plane. 6. A fisherman in the area known as Thousand Islands told local media that he and his crew had found several pieces of metal. 7. The missing 737, is around 26-year-old, was inducted into the Sriwijaya Air fleet in 2012 and was previously used by Continental Air Lines and United Airlines Holdings Inc. 8. The Boeing 737-500 model is quite old as compared to the new 737 Max aircraft that were launched recently and were grounded in 2019 after two horrifying crashes. 9. Sriwijaya Air is an Indonesian airline based in Jakarta. Sriwijaya Air is the country's third-largest carrier, operating a fleet of narrow-body aircraft, and offers flights to various Indonesian destinations and a few international destinations. The airline is listed as a Category 1 airline by Indonesia's Civil Aviation 10. The airline operates with a fleet of 18 Boeing 737 aircraft and flies over to 15 destinations. The airline has a solid safety record until now, with no onboard casualties in four incidents recorded on the Aviation Safety Network database