Gulf News

No survivors after jet with 189 crashes

Indonesian plane goes down into the Java Sea minutes after takeoff

- PAKISJAYA, INDONESIA

Rescuers in inflatable boats retrieved human remains, pieces of aircraft and personal belongings from the Java Sea yesterday after a new-generation Boeing jet operated by an Indonesian budget airline crashed minutes after takeoff, killing all 189 people on board.

Lion Air Flight JT610, a new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was en route to Pangkal Pinang, capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region when it tried to circle back to the capital.

Rescue officials said they had recovered some human remains from the crash site, about 15km off the coast.

The pilot had asked to return to base (RTB) after the plane took off from Jakarta. It lost contact with ground staff after 13 minutes. “An RTB was requested and had been approved but we’re still trying to figure out the reason,” Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee, told reporters, referring to the pilot’s request.

There were two foreigners on the plane: one of the pilots, Indian national Bhavye Suneja, and an Italian citizen.

An Indonesian aircraft with 189 people on board crashed into the sea yesterday as it tried to circle back to the capital, Jakarta, from where it had taken off minutes earlier, and there were likely no survivors, officials said.

Lion Air flight JT610, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was en route to Pangkal Pinang, capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region. Rescue officials said they had recovered some human remains from the crash site, about 15 kilometres off the coast.

Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, but its safety record is patchy. If all aboard have died, the crash will be the country’s second-worst air disaster since 1997, industry experts said.

The pilot had asked to return to base (RTB) after the plane took off from Jakarta. It lost contact with ground staff after 13 minutes.

“It’s correct that an RTB was requested and had been approved but we’re still trying to figure out the reason,” Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee, told reporters, referring to the pilot’s request.

“We hope the black box is not far from the main wreckage so it can be found soon,” he said, referring to the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

Search and rescue agency head Mohammad Syaugi told a news conference earlier that no distress signal had been received from the aircraft’s emergency transmitte­r. Yousuf Latief, spokesman of national search and rescue agency, said there were likely no survivors.

At least 23 government officials, four employees of state tin miner PT Timah and three employees of a Timah subsidiary, were on the plane. A Lion Air official said one Italian passenger and one Indian pilot were on board. The plane went down in waters about 30 metres to 35 metres deep. Items such as handphones and life vests were found, along with the body parts.

Technical problem

Ambulances were lined up at Karawang, on the coast east of Jakarta, and police were preparing rubber dinghies, a Reuters reporter said. Fishing boats were being used to help search.

Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group, told reporters the aircraft had a technical problem on a flight from the resort island of Bali to Jakarta but it had been “resolved according to procedure”.

Sirait declined to specify the nature of the issue but said none of its other aircraft of that model had the same problem. Lion operated 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and it had no plan to ground the rest of them, he said.

The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufactur­er’s workhorse single-aisle jet.

Privately owned Lion Air said the aircraft had been in operation since August, was airworthy, with its pilot and co-pilot together having accumulate­d 11,000 hours of flying time.

Safety experts say nearly all accidents are caused by a combinatio­n of factors and only rarely have a single identifiab­le cause. The flight took off in clear weather at around 6.20am and was due to have landed in Pangkal Pinang at 7.20am. ■ ■

Distraught relatives of those on board arrived at the airport in Jakarta and Pangkal Pinang.

“Be patient, pray the best for papa,” one woman arriving at Jakarta airport told a sobbing girl.

President Joko Widodo told a news conference authoritie­s were focusing on the search and rescue, and he called for the country’s prayers and support.

The effort to find the wreckage and retrieve the black boxes represents a major challenge for investigat­ors in Indonesia, where an AirAsia Airbus jet crashed in the Java Sea in December 2014.

Under internatio­nal rules, the US National Transporta­tion Safety Board will automatica­lly assist with the inquiry, backed up by technical advisers from Boeing and US-French engine maker CFM Internatio­nal.

Boeing was deeply saddened by the loss, it said in a statement, and was ready to provide technical assistance for the investigat­ion. ■

An Adam Air plane plunged into the sea off Sulawesi island on New Year’s Day 2007, killing all 102 people on board.

 ?? Reuters ?? Rescue workers arrange pieces of the wreckage, showing part of the logo of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday.
Reuters Rescue workers arrange pieces of the wreckage, showing part of the logo of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday.
 ?? Reuters ?? Relatives of passengers arrive at a crisis centre at Soekarno Hatta Internatio­nal airport near Jakarta.
Reuters Relatives of passengers arrive at a crisis centre at Soekarno Hatta Internatio­nal airport near Jakarta.

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