Suspected Debris From Plane That Disappeared After Crashing Today Have Been Found

‘Suspected debris’ has been found in the search for a missing plane that vanished while flying over the sea in Indonesia. The Sriwijaya Air flight from Jakarta to Pontianak lost contact after reportedly falling 10,000ft within minutes of taking off. 

Rescuers looking for the aircraft have found suspected wreckage in waters north of the city, an official of the Basarnas search and rescue agency said. 

According to local media, fishermen first spotted metal objects believed to be parts of a plane on Saturday afternoon in the Thousand Islands, a chain of islands north of Jakarta. 

Indonesian Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati said the Boeing 737-500 took off from Jakarta at about 1.56 pm and lost contact with the control tower at 2.40 pm It is thought the aircraft had six crew members and 56 passengers on board, including seven children and three babies. 

Television footage showed relatives and friends of people aboard the plane weeping, praying and hugging each other as they waited at Jakarta’s airport and Pontianak’s airport. 

The plane lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute, according to flight tracker website FlightRadar24. It said the nose-dive began just four minutes after takeoff.

plane flying from Jakarta to Pontianak would spend most of the flight over the Java Sea. Irawati said in a statement that a search and rescue operation was underway in coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee. It is not yet clear what caused the crash. Registration details included in the tracking data say the jet was 27 years old.

A statement released by the airline said the plane was on an estimated 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island. 

The airline said it was waiting on more information before releasing further details. The reported disappearance comes just over two years after a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX crashed into the sea after taking off in Indonesia.  

The flight was heading to Pangkal Pinang, an island north of Jakarta, when it lost contact with air control on October 29 – just 13 minutes after take-off. All 189 people onboard were killed in the crash, which was blamed on a combination of aircraft design flaws, inadequate training and maintenance problems.