Indonesia loses contact with Sriwijaya Flight 182 after take off from Jakarta

Indonesia loses contact with Sriwijaya Flight 182 after take off from Jakarta
January 9, 2021, 11:43 am

Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 lost contact with Indonesia’s aviation authorities shortly after taking off. (Twitter)

A Sriwijaya Air plane with more than 50 people on board lost contact after taking off from Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday en route to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province, local media reported.

Reliable tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed that Flight SJ182 “lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute, about 4 minutes after departure from Jakarta.”

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

https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1347850078644563969

Sriwijaya Air, an Indonesian airline, said in a statement it is still gathering more detailed information regarding the flight before it can make any statement.

https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1347852838538502144

Indonesian Transportation Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati said in a statement that a search and rescue operation was underway in coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee, according to the Associated Press.

A plane flying from Jakarta to Pontianak would spend most of the flight over the Java Sea. There was still no sign of the missing plane as night fell.

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.

source: Reuters

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