A Sriwijaya Airplane with more than 50 passengers on board lost contact after takeoff from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Saturday.
Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 took off from Jakarta airport in the Indonesian capital and was headed to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province. It is not yet fully clear how many passengers were on board at the time of the take-off from Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
The aircraft has a capacity of 130 passengers and flight time from Jakarta to Pontianak is usually 90 minutes. It is now being feared that the plane has crashed.
Various reports suggest that the plane had at least 50 people but the exact number is yet to come to light.
Ministry spokesman Adita Irawati said, “A Sriwijaya (Air) plane from Jakarta to Pontianak (on Borneo Island) with call sign SJY182 has lost contact.”
Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 lost more than 10.000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.https://t.co/fNZqlIR2dz pic.twitter.com/MAVfbj73YN
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 9, 2021
As per flight tracking website Flightradar24, the aircraft lost more than 3000 metres in less than a minute.
The plane was not a Boeing 737 Max which has hit headlines in recent years due to major crashes. However, there is no official word on this so far.