Indonesian divers discover pieces of airplane wreckage in the Java Sea
Indonesian divers on Sunday located parts of the wreckage of a Boeing 737500 75 feet down in the Java Sea, a day after the jet with 62 people onboard lost contact with air traffic controllers following takeoff from Indonesia’s capital, officials said.
“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said in a statement. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”
Sriwijaya Air Flight SJ182 took off from Jakarta at about 1:56 p.m. local time and lost contact with the control tower at 2:40 p.m., said the Indonesian Transportation Ministry’s Adita Irawati.
The 90-minute flight was to Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island. Fifty-six passengers and six crew members were on board.
“We are aware of media reports from Jakarta regarding Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182,” Boeing said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the crew, passengers, and their families. We are in contact with our airline customer and stand ready to support them during this difficult time.”
The jetliner lost more than 10,000 feet in altitude in one minute, four minutes after departure, according to the flight tracking service Flightradar24.com. The plane’s last known altitude was 250 feet; its highest altitude was 10,900 feet, the service reported.
A plane flying from Jakarta to Pontianak would spend most of the flight over the Java Sea.
Fishermen in the area around Thousand Islands, a chain north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion around 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
“We heard something explode. We thought it was a bomb or a tsunami, since after that we saw the big splash from the water,” fisherman Solihin, who goes by one name, told The Associated
Press by phone.
“It was raining heavily and the weather was so bad. So it is difficult to see around clearly. But we can see the splash and a big wave after the sounds. We were very shocked and directly saw the plane debris and the fuel around our boat.”
Television footage showed relatives and friends of people aboard the plane weeping, praying and hugging one another as they waited at the airports in Jakarta and Pontianak.
According to the BBC, the Boeing 737 jet is not a Max, the plane involved in deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019 that resulted in the jets being grounded worldwide.
The South China Morning Post reported that the Sriwijaya Air plane was about 26 years old.
Sriwijaya Air is one of Indonesia’s discount carriers, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.
Bambang Suryo Aji, the National Search and Rescue Agency’s deputy head of operations and preparedness, said searchers collected plane debris and clothes found by fishermen.
A commander of one of the search ships, who goes by a single name, Eko, said fishermen found cables and pieces of metal in the water.
Aji said no radio beacon signal had been detected.
He said his agency was investigating why the plane’s emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, was not transmitting a signal that could confirm whether it had crashed.
Contributing: The Associated Press