Deadly crash.
None of the 189 passengers are expected to survive after an Indonesian plane crashes at sea.
Rescuers in inflatable boats retrieved human remains, pieces of aircraft and personal belongings from the Java Sea on Monday after a newgeneration Boeing jet operated by an Indonesian budget airline crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.
Distraught family members struggled to comprehend the sudden loss of loved ones in the crash of the 2monthold Lion Air plane with experienced pilots in fine weather.
They gathered at crisis centers set up by the authorities at airports, hoping desperately for a miracle. But a top search official, citing the condition of the remains recovered, said no survivors are expected.
The disaster is a setback for Indonesia’s airline industry, which just emerged from decadelong bans by the European Union and the U.S. over safety concerns.
President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation and urged Indonesians to “keep on praying.”
The crash of the Boeing 737 Max 8 is the latest in a series of tragedies that have struck Indonesia this year, including earthquakes and a tsunami that killed several thousand people.
An air transport official, Novie Riyanto, 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 10 minutes later. Weather conditions were normal but the plane, which Lion Air received in August, had experienced an unspecified technical issue on its previous flight.
Relatives and friends wept, prayed and hugged each other as they waited at Jakarta’s airport and at Pangkal Pinang’s airport on Bangka island off Sumatra where the flight was headed. Some, including Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, headed to the search and rescue agency’s headquarters in Jakarta for information. About 20 ministry staff were on the flight.
Latief Nurbana said he and his wife, Yeti Eka Sumiati, stayed up late Sunday talking to their 24yearold son Lutfi Nuramdani, squeezing every moment they could from his weekend visit to Jakarta, then woke up early to take him to the airport.
“We can’t believe that he left us this way, we can’t believe that his plane crashed. That’s something we only see on TV news, now it happened to my son,” Nurbana said. “We want to see his body, his face, his remains.”