Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air lost contact with a Boeing 737-500 passenger jet that was scheduled to leave Jakarta at 1.25pm local time for the city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan on Saturday.
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.” There were 62 people on board, comprising 56 passengers and six flight crew. Sriwijaya Air said it is still gathering more detailed information regarding the flight before it can make any statement.
Indonesian maritime authorities (Bakamla) said that they were sending three vessels to help with search and rescue effort. Plane tracking website FlightRadar24 tweeted that SJY 182 lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute and that the aircraft was about 26 years old.
