A Sriwijaya Air passenger jet carrying 62 people lost contact with air traffic controllers on Saturday, minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on a domestic flight[Source:GulfNews]
A Sriwijaya Air passenger jet carrying 62 people lost contact with air traffic controllers on Saturday, minutes after taking off from Indonesia’s capital on a domestic flight.
Debris found by fishermen was being examined to see if it was from the missing plane, officials said.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2.36 pm local time.
The Boeing 737-500 disappeared from radars four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 8,839 meters, he said.
Flight tracker website FlightRadar24 showed SJ182 losing more than 3km of altitude in under a minute.
The airline said in a statement that 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 plane was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members, all Indonesian nationals, including six extra crew for another trip.
