Passenger Plane disappears few minutes after takeoff

A Sriwijaya Air plane with over 60 people on board is allegedly missing after it took-off from the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, on Saturday.

The airline in a statement disclosed that the Boeing 737-500 was on an estimated 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo Island.

It added that there were 56 passengers and six crew members on board. According to the report, Surachman, a local government official, said that some fishermen found what appeared to be the wreckage of an aircraft in waters, north of Jakarta, and a search is under way.

Indonesian Transportation Ministry Spokeswoman, Adita Irawati, said: “The missing plane is currently under investigation and under coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee. It last made contact at 2:40pm [0740 GMT].”

Also, a reliable tracking service firm, Flightradar24, tweeted:

“Flight SJ182 lost more than 10,000 feet [3,000 metres] of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.”

Boeing 737-500 is a 27-year-old aircraft, according to registration details included in the tracking data.

Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation with more than 260 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents on land, sea and air because of overcrowding on ferries, aging infrastructure, and poorly enforced safety standards.

For instance, a Boeing 737 MAX operated by the Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed off Jakarta in late 2018, killing all 189 passengers and crew.