4 MINUTES TO DISASTER
Indonesian jet goes down at sea
An Indonesian airliner crashed into the sea Saturday shortly after taking off from the capital, Jakarta.
The Sriwijaya Air jet was carrying 62 passengers and crew members — all Indonesian nationals — when it plunged from the sky.
The Indonesian navy located a possible crash site and deployed a dozen vessels, including five warships, and divers to the area. No radio beacon signal was detected, but local media reported that the nation’s transport minister said the plane went down near Laki Island, about 12 miles from the airport.
Authorities did not say whether they believed there were survivors. Of those on board, 50 were passengers and 12 were crew members, including six who were set to transfer to another flight.
The Boeing 737-500 took off from Jakarta at 2:36 p.m. local time and lost contact with the air traffic controllers at 2:40 p.m., Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said.
The domestic flight was delayed for an hour on the ground. The cause of the delay was unclear. It was raining at the time.
Tracking service Flightradar24 said on Twitter that Flight SJ182 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about four minutes after departure from Jakarta.”
Media outlets reported that a transport ministry spokeswoman said air traffic control at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport asked the pilot why the plane had veered off its expected flight path seconds before it disappeared.
Indonesian television channels showed pictures of suspected wreckage in the water.
“We found some cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal on the water,” one security official told a local CNN station.
A fisherman in the area known as Thousand Islands told local media that he and his crew had found several pieces of metal and clothes that they turned over to authorities.
The airline, which runs mostly domestic flights, said the 26-yearold plane was on an estimated 90minute trip from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island. Most of the flight would have been over the Java Sea.
Sriwijaya Air CEO Jefferson Irwin Jauwena told a news conference that the plane had been in good condition.
Sriwijaya Air, founded in 2003, has never had a crash before.
Boeing tweeted that it is working to gather information and expressed sympathy for the crew, passengers and their families.
“We are in contact with our airline customers and stand ready to support them during this difficult time,” the post read.
The plane, the world’s most common jet, was much older than the problem-plagued 737 MAX, which was involved in two crashes, including a Lion Air flight in Indonesia, before it was pulled from the sky. Boeing on Friday announced a $2.5 billion settlement over the 737 MAX, and flights have resumed.
Indonesia’s KNKT safety agency was expected to launch an immediate investigation.
The US National Safety Transportation Board will automatically be part of the probe, since the plane was designed and built in the United States.