Salvage operation begins after 189 killed in passenger jet crash
● Plane plunged into sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta
Indonesian rescue officials have said they are not expecting any survivors from the Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea off Jakarta with 189 people on board.
The search and rescue agency’s operations director, Bambang Suryo Aji, said the search is focusing on finding bodies.
Mr Aji said the location of the plane hull has not been identified yet. The waters where the jet went down are up to 100ft deep. The search is currently planned to last seven days and could be extended.
The Lion Air plane crashed just minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital, in a blow to the country’ s aviation safety record after the lifting of ban son its airlines by the EU and the US.
More than 300 people including soldiers, police and local fishermen were involved in the search that has also recovered ID cards, personal belongings and aircraft debris. At least a dozen ambulances were parked at a nearby beach.
Indonesia’s disaster agency posted photographs online of a crushed smartphone, books, bags and parts of the aircraft fuselage collected by search and rescue vessels.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo ordered the transport safety commission to investigate and urged Indonesians to “keep on praying” as rescuers search for victims.
An air transport official, Novie, said the flight was cleared to return to Jakarta after the pilot made a “return to base” request two to three minutes after taking off.
It plunged into the sea about ten minutes later. Weather conditions were normal, but the new aircraft had experienced a technical issue on its previous flight.
Lion Air said the jet, which was making a 70-minute flight to Pangkal Pinang on an island chain off Sumatra, was carrying 181 passengers, including
one child and two babies, and eight crew members.
It said there were two foreigners on board the plane: its pilot, originally from New Delhi, and an Italian citizen.
Distraught friends and relatives prayed and hugged each other as they waited at Pangkal Pinang’s airport and at a crisis centre set up at Jakarta’s airport. Indonesian TV broadcast pictures of a fuel slick and debris field in the sea.
Indonesian finance minister Sri Mulyani also arrived at the agency and met its chief,
seeking information about 20 ministry staff who were on the flight after attending an event in Jakarta. Photographs circulating online showed the distraught minister trying to comfort stunned colleagues.
Weather conditions for the flight were safe, according to the Indonesian meteorology agency. It said the type of clouds associated with turbulence was not present and winds were weak.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 was delivered to Lion Air in midaugust and put in use within days, according to aviation website Flightradar24.
Malindo Air, a Malaysian subsidiary of Jakarta-based Lion Air, was the first airline to begin using the 737 Max 8 last year. The Max 8 replaced the similar 800 in the Chicago-based plane maker’s product line.
Lion Air president-director Edward Sirait said the plane had a “technical problem” on its previous flight from Bali to Jakarta but it had been fully remedied.
The pilot of Flight 610 had more than 6,000 flying hours while the co-pilot had more than 5,000 hours, according to the airline.
Boeing said it is “deeply saddened” by the crash and was prepared to provide technical assistance to Indonesia’s probe.
Lion Air, a discount carrier, is one of Indonesia’s youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.
In 2013, one of its Boeing 737800 jets missed the runway while landing on Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities.