The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Families pray for miracle after jet crashes into sea
Search for black box as all 189 people on board believed dead
Human remains, aircraft debris and personal belongings have been retrieved from the Java Sea after a Boeing jet operated by an Indonesian budget airline crashed minutes after take-off from Jakarta, with all 189 people on board believed killed.
Distraught family members struggled to comprehend the sudden loss of loved ones after the crash involving a twomonth-old Lion Air plane with experienced pilots at the controls in fine weather.
“Indonesia’s airline industry has just emerged from a decade-longban”
They gathered at crisis centres at airports, hoping for a miracle. But a search official has said that no survivors are expected.
Indonesia’s airline industry has just emerged from a decade-long ban by the European Union and the US over safety concerns.
President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation and urged Indonesians to “keep on praying”.
An air transport official said the Boeing 737 Max 8 was cleared to return to Jakarta after the pilot made a “return to base” request two to three minutes after taking off. The plane 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 heading.
More than 300 people including soldiers, police and fishermen are involved in the grim search, retrieving aircraft debris and personal items such as a mobile phone, ID cards and carry-on bags from the seas north-east of Jakarta.
Search and Rescue Agency chief Muhammad Syaugi said he is certain it will not take long to locate the hull of the aircraft and its black box due to the relatively shallow (around 100ft) depths of the waters it plunged into. Three specialised search ships, including one from Singapore, are to help with the search.
The jet, which was on a one-hour flight, was carrying 181 passengers, including one child and two babies, and eight crew members.
There were two foreigners on the plane: one of the pilots, Indian national Bhavye Suneja, and an Italian citizen. About 20 government staff were also on the flight. The pilot of Flight 610 had more than 6,000 flying hours, while the co-pilot had more than 5,000 hours, according to Lion Air.
Boeing said it is “deeply saddened” by the crash and is prepared to provide technical assistance to Indonesia’s crash probe.
The crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea in December 2014, killing all 162 on board.