Indonesian plane carrying about 200 passengers crashes into the sea
An Indonesian Lion Air plane crashed just 13 minutes after takeoff and lost contact with air traffic control.
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A passenger plane of Lion Air, Indonesia. Photo:Aviation. |
Flight JT610 of Indonesia's national airline Lion Air departing from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung province, lost contact with air traffic control at 6:33 a.m. (local time) this morning, according toReuters.
The National Search and Rescue Agency later confirmed that the plane had crashed into the sea.
The plane left Jakarta at 6:10 a.m. and was scheduled to land at Pangkalpinang at 7:20 a.m. Yusuf Latif, spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the plane crashed just 13 minutes after takeoff and disappeared near Karawang, West Java province.
"We cannot make any comment at this time. We are trying to collect all the information and data," said Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group.
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Actual flight path of the Lion Air plane that crashed this morning. Photo:Flightradar24 |
The crashed plane was a new Boeing 737 MAX 8 delivered to Lion Air in August this year, equipped with two CFM LEAP-1B engines. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 can carry up to 200 passengers, according to the aircraft tracking website.Flightradar 24.
The most recent serious air accident in Indonesia occurred in December 2014, when an AirAsia Airbus A320 crashed into the sea after taking off from Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.