INDONESIAN BOEING PLANE GOES MISSING WITH 62 ON BOARD; DEBRIS FOUND

Sat 09 January 2021:

A Sriwijaya Air plane with 62 people on board lost contact after taking off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on a domestic flight on Saturday and rescuers said suspected debris had been found in the sea off the city.

“Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10.000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta,” Flightradar24 tweeted Saturday morning.

Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10.000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.https://t.co/fNZqlIR2dz pic.twitter.com/MAVfbj73YN

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 9, 2021

The Boeing 737-500, en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan, disappeared from radar screens after taking off just after 2.30 p.m. (0730 GMT).Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya told a news conference that 62 people had been aboard, including 12 crew. Another official had said earlier there were 56 passengers and six crew.

Search and rescue teams were on the ground searching during the night. Officials said they expected the plane to be around Thousand Islands, an island chain located north of Jakarta’s coasts.

WATCH | Indonesia missing plane: Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182

Video of civilians finding small parts from the #SriwijayaAir Air flight SJ182 that departed from Jakarta, #Indonesia pic.twitter.com/bF08FcICJ5

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) January 9, 2021

Before the teams called off their search for the night due to visibility issues, they found some plane debris and were still working on determining the exact coordinates where the plane crashed, officials said.

Agus Haryono, another official with the agency, told Reuters that debris suspected to be from the plane had been found in the sea, but it had not been confirmed that it came from the missing flight.