BOEING 737 FLIGHT FROM JAKARTA ‘LOST CONTACT’

JAKARTA A Lion Air flight lost contact shortly after it left Indonesia’s capital early today, and a search and rescue effort was being made at sea.

The Boeing 737-800 plane departed Jakarta, about 6.20 a.m. for Pangkal Pinang on an island chain off Sumatra. Data for Flight 610 on aircraft tracking website FlightAware ends just a few minutes following takeoff.

“We can confirm that one of our flights has lost contact,” said Lion Air’s Danang Mandala Prihantoro. “Its position cannot be ascertained yet.”

A report to Jakarta Search and Rescue cites the crew of a tug boat reporting a Lion Air flight falling from the sky.

There was no immediate confirmation of how many people were on board, but max capacity is about 190.