Boeing jet goes missing with 62 on board after takeoff from Jakarta

Highlights- 

• 62 people were on board
• It was a Boeing 737-500 aircraft
• The aircraft was about 26 years old  
• It lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute 

An Indonesian aircraft with 62 people on board lost contact after taking off from Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24.com said, the aircraft had lost more than 3,000m (10,000ft) in altitude in less than a minute.

The aircraft, Boeing 737-500, was about 26 years old. 

According to an official statement issued by Sriwijaya Air on their official Twitter account, the flight had 40 adults, 7 children, 3 babies and 6 crew members.

Bagus Puruhito, head of the country's search and rescue agency Basarnas, said teams had been dispatched to search the waters north of Jakarta. No radio beacon signal had been detected, the agency said.

Officials speaking in a press conference Photo: Reuters

The country immediately launched search operations which are now being hampered due to poor visibility, according to the National Search and Rescue Agency Deputy for Operations and Preparedness Bambang Suryo Aji, reports Indonesian news portal Antara News. 

"Currently, our personnel are already in the field and have found several parts of the plane, and the obstacle we face today is poor visibility because it is night time," he said during a virtual press conference.

Agus Haryono, another official with the agency, told Reuters that debris suspected to be from the plane had been found in the sea, but it had not been confirmed that it came from the missing flight.

Indonesian soldiers are seen at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport after Sriwijaya Air plane with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off, in Tangerang, near Jakarta, Indonesia, January 9, 2021. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

Adita Irawati, the Indonesian Transport Ministry spokesperson, told This Week in Asia that the last contact they had with the flight SJY 182 was at 2.20pm (local time).

"At this point, we are investigating and coordinating the matter with Basarnas (the search and rescue agency) and KNKT (the transport safety body). We will release more information as soon as there are developments."