A Boeing Co. passenger plane. carrying 62 people crashed into the Java Sea on Saturday, Indonesian authorities said.
The Sriwijaya Air jet lost contact with air traffic controllers and disappeared from radar minutes after taking off from the country’s capital, Jakarta, transport ministry officials said. It was on a 90-minute route from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo in Indonesia, and disappeared at 2.40pm local time, a ministry spokeswoman said. Adita Irawati.
The plane involved was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, according to Theodora Erika, a spokeswoman for Sriwijaya Air, which is an Indonesian carrier. Flight SJ182 from Sriwijaya took off at 14:36 local time, rising to a maximum altitude of 10,900 feet about four minutes later and beginning a steep descent, according to aviation data provider Flightradar24. Flightradar24 said the last data signal from the plane was at an altitude of 250 feet.
Boeing said in a statement on Saturday that it was aware of the Jakarta reports and was following the situation closely. CFM International, which manufactured the jet engines, said it provided technical assistance to authorities and the airline. CFM is a joint venture between General Electric Co. and Safran SA.
The Boeing aircraft is not the 737 MAX, the newest version of the company’s single-aisle jet family, which had been landed nearly two years ago after two fatal crashes.