62feared dead after airliner disappears
Sixty- two air passengers are feared dead after an Indonesian airliner is suspected to have crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from the capital.
Debris found later by fishermen is being examined to see if it was from the missing Sriwijaya Air flight, officials said.
Indonesia’s transportation minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off from Jakarta yesterday morning.
The Boeing 737-500 disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 29,000ft, he said.
The airline said in a statement the plane was on a 90- minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island. It was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members, all Indonesian nationals, including six extra crew for another trip.
Mr Sumadi said a dozen vessels, including four warships, were deployed in a search- and- rescue operation centred between Lancang and Laki islands, part of the Thousand Islands chain just north of Jakarta.
Bam b a n g Sur yo A j i , t he national search- and- rescue agency’s deputy head of operations and preparedness, said rescuers collected plane debris and clothes that were found by fishermen. They handed the items over to officials for investigation to determine whether they were from the missing plane.
A commander of one of the search- and- rescue ships said that fishermen found cables and pieces of metal in the water.
Mr Aji said no radio beacon signal had been detected. He said his agency was investigating why the plane’s emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, was not transmitting a signal that could confirm whether it had crashed.