An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 62 people that went missing on Saturday is feared to have crashed, after suspected debris was found in the sea north of Jakarta.
The Boeing 737-500, which departed from Jakarta’s international airport at about 2.36pm, lost contact four minutes later. Data from the flight tracker FlightRadar24 said Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 had reached an altitude of nearly 11,000ft (3,350 metres) before dropping to 250ft.
The plane was carrying 50 passengers, including seven children, among them three infants, and 12 crew members, according to the transport ministry. It was scheduled to make a 90-minute journey over the Java Sea to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Borneo island.
A local fisherman reported that he had seen possible debris at 3.30pm, when an explosion was first heard, according to Deby Riana Sumanthi, the head of maritime agriculture and food security for the sub-department of Thousand Island-Jakarta.
Footage of suspected wreckage was also broadcast on Indonesian TV. “We found some cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal on the water,” a security official told CNNIndonesia.com. It has not been confirmed that the debris came from the flight.
Agus Haryono, a rescue agency official, told Reuters that 50 people were searching for the aircraft and would continue working into the night. Indonesia’s transport ministry said it was investigating the incident.
“A Sriwijaya plane from Jakarta to Pontianak with call sign SJY182 has lost contact,” said ministry spokesman Adita Irawati. “It last made contact at 2:40 pm (0740 GMT).”
The president director of Sriwijaya Air, Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, said the airline was coordinating with Basarnas, the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transport Safety Committee. The airline, which was founded in 2003, mostly flies within Indonesia and has an otherwise solid safety record.
The plane, a Boeing 737-500, does not use the same software system as those involved in two crashes that killed hundreds of people and left Boeing in crisis, according to Reuters.
In October 2018, 189 people were killed when a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max jet crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta for a domestic flight. Months later, a Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people onboard. The US justice department fined Boeing $2.5bn last week after the company was charged with fraud and conspiracy in connection with two crashes.
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.”
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, has also been criticised for poor safety standards in its aviation industry, which has been plagued by accidents. An AirAsia plane crashed in 2014 with the loss of 162 lives.
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