Divers search for clues in deadly plane crash
The Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed moments after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia
AJAKARTA, Indonesia plane carrying 189 people from Jakarta to a smaller Indonesian city crashed into the Java Sea on Monday, prompting hard questions about the safety of the skies over a vast island nation dependent on air travel.
Minutes after takeoff, with skies clear and piloting a brand-new plane, the crew of Lion Air Flight 610 contacted air traffic controllers and asked permission to return to the airport.
“The request was permitted,” said a spokesman for the Indonesian air navigation authorities, Yohanes Sirait. “Then we lost contact. It was very quick, maybe around one minute.”
A tugboat crew saw the plane crash in Karawang Bay, northeast of Jakarta, the National Search and Rescue Agency said. Witnesses who saw the plane hurtle into the sea told officials they had not heard an explosion.
Officials appeared to have given up any hope of survivors.
“I suspect all the passengers are dead,” said Marine Brig. Gen. Bambang Suryo, director of operations for the search and rescue agency.
By airplane standards, the Boeing 737 Max 8 that crashed was brand new. It was delivered to Lion Air in August and had flown only about 800 hours before it went down.
A new class of aircraft, the plane entered service only about 17 months ago but has quickly become an airline mainstay as carriers like Southwest and American Airlines add them to their fleets. They generally replace older 737s, which fly mostly domestic routes.
Edward Sirait, Lion Air’s president director, said the plane that crashed Monday had experienced an unspecified technical problem during a flight the day before from the Indonesian resort island of Bali to Jakarta. He said the issue had been resolved “according to procedure.”
For Indonesia, the crash was another setback for its fast-growing aviation sector, which has been troubled for years by safety problems but had recently shown signs of progress. In June, the European Union lifted a ban on Indonesian airlines that it had imposed in 2007, when it had cited “unaddressed safety concerns.” (The state carrier, Garuda, and three other airlines were cleared in 2009.)
In the hours after the crash Monday, a team of 30 divers was searching for the plane’s black boxes, critical pieces of evidence for determining the cause of the crash, said Air Marshal Muhammad Syaugi, chief of the search and rescue agency. Officials said rescue workers had arrived at the crash site, 2 nautical miles south of the aircraft’s last reported coordinates.
The plane departed Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, at 6:21 a.m. Monday. The aviation website Flight Tracker said the flight had been scheduled to arrive at 7:20 a.m. in Pangkal Pinang, on an island off Sumatra. The 178 passengers included two infants, one other child, 20 officials from the country’s Finance Ministry and 10 more from the state auditor agency, officials said. An Indian pilot was among the eight crew members, and an Italian passenger was also onboard.
By Monday night, officials said human remains recovered from the crash site had been placed in nine body bags, but it was unclear from how many victims the remains came from. Syaugi said he believed that many of the bodies were still trapped in the plane.
Agus Haryono, an operations official with Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters that police and military rescue divers had found part of what they believed was the fuselage and were searching for more at a depth of about 130 feet, as well as on the water’s surface.
“We have found pieces of fuselage and passengers’ property, such as ID cards,” Agus said. “There is a lot of debris.”
In a statement, Danang Mandala Prihantoro, a Lion Air official, said, “Lion Air is very concerned about this incident and will collaborate with relevant agencies and all parties.” The airline, he said, had set up hotlines for the relatives of passengers to call for information.
FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service, said that it had analyzed preliminary satellite navigation data from the flight that showed an “increase in speed” and “high rate of descent” from the plane’s last transmission. The data released by FlightRadar24 showed Monday’s flight taking off and initially ascending to what would be a normal altitude. But within a couple of minutes, the plane suddenly plunged 500 feet and banked left in an unusual flight pattern before a sharp descent into the Java Sea.
Boeing said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened” and stood ready to assist investigators. “We express our concern for those on board, and extend heartfelt sympathies to their families and loved ones,” it said.
Lion Air said in a statement Monday that the captain of the flight, Bhavye Suneja, an Indian citizen, had more than 6,000 flying hours.