Indonesia's Lion Air Plane Crashes Into Sea Minutes After Takeoff from Jakarta, Rescue Operation On
A search and rescue effort has been launched for the Boeing 737-800 plane which departed Jakarta about 6.20 am on Monday.
A Lion air plane prepares to land at the Sukarno-Hatta airport in Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta (File photo: Reuters)
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Jakarta: Indonesia's search and rescue agency said on Monday that a Lion Air passenger flight from Jakarta, the capital, to the city of Pangkal Pinang off the island of Sumatra, had crashed into the sea.
"It has been confirmed that it has crashed," Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the agency, said by text message, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.
The plane lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff, according to the official. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board.
"We cannot give any comment at this moment, said Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group. "We are trying to collect all the information and data."
The accident is the first to be reported that involves the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017. Lion Air's Malaysian subsidiary, Malindo Air, received the very first global delivery.
The Flightradar website tracked the plane, showing it looping south on take-off and then heading north before the flight path ended abruptly over the Java Sea, not far from the coast.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in recent years. A 12-year-old boy was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed eight people in mountainous eastern Indonesia in August.
In August 2015, a commercial passenger aircraft operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana crashed in Papua due to bad weather, killing all 54 people on board.
"It has been confirmed that it has crashed," Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the agency, said by text message, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.
The plane lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff, according to the official. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board.
"We cannot give any comment at this moment, said Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group. "We are trying to collect all the information and data."
The accident is the first to be reported that involves the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017. Lion Air's Malaysian subsidiary, Malindo Air, received the very first global delivery.
The Flightradar website tracked the plane, showing it looping south on take-off and then heading north before the flight path ended abruptly over the Java Sea, not far from the coast.
Indonesia relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has a poor aviation safety record and has suffered several fatal crashes in recent years. A 12-year-old boy was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed eight people in mountainous eastern Indonesia in August.
In August 2015, a commercial passenger aircraft operated by Indonesian carrier Trigana crashed in Papua due to bad weather, killing all 54 people on board.