A Lion Air plane crash off the coast of Indonesia is the site of a major search and rescue operation following the crash of a Boeing 737 into the sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta. 189 people were on board.
Flight JT 610 was on a scheduled flight to Pangkal Pinang, the main town in the Bangka Belitung Islands.
It lost contact with ground control a few minutes after take-off, and is believed to have ended up underwater.
The cause of the crash is not yet known, and there has been no word yet of any survivors.
The plane was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, a brand new type of aircraft.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said there were 20 ministry officials on board, who were returning to their posts in Pangkal Pinang after spending the weekend with their families in Jakarta for a public holiday.
Debris, life vests and a cellphone have been discovered in the water two nautical miles from the coordinates given as the crash site, SAR officials said. The fuselage has not yet been located.
Indonesia’s disaster agency posted photos online of a crushed smartphone, books, bags and parts of the aircraft fuselage that had been collected by teams that converged on the area. Television pictures showed a fuel slick and a field of debris.
“The plane crashed into water about 30m to 40m deep,” Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Yusuf Latif told AFP news agency. “We’re still searching for the remains of the plane.”
Items believed to belong to passengers have been found in the water, including ID cards and driver’s licences, the search and rescue agency said on Twitter.
“We don’t know yet whether there are any survivors,” the agency’s head, Muhmmad Syaugi, told reporters.
“We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm.”
