Indonesia searches for missing Sriwijaya Air Boeing plane feared to have crashed into the sea off Jakarta
- The last contact authorities had with Sriwijaya Air flight SJ 182 was at 2.20pm; an intensive search is ongoing in the waters off Jakarta
- There were 62 people on board the plane bound for Pontianak in West Kalimantan
Indonesian authorities were conducting an intensive search in the waters off Jakarta on Saturday night after they lost contact with a Boeing 737-524 carrying 62 people, all Indonesian citizens.
The Sriwijaya Air flight, SJ 182, took off at 2.36pm local time and was bound for Pontianak in West Kalimantan, a flight that usually takes about 90 minutes.
However, flight tracking data showed the plane taking a steep dive just four minutes after it left Soekarno-Hatta Airport.
Sriwijaya Air said the 62 people on board comprised 50 passengers and 12 airline employees, of whom six were on duty as flight crew. There were 40 adults, seven children and three infants among the passengers. All those on board were Indonesian, the country’s transport safety committee said.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said he had been instructed by President Joko Widodo to “maximise” search efforts and had deployed vessels from Basarnas, the national search and rescue agency. The Navy was also involved in the search and authorities were trying to establish what the weather was like when the flight took off.