Minutes after take-off\, Indonesia\'s Lion Air flight crashes into sea

Minutes after take-off, Indonesia's Lion Air flight crashes into sea

A Lion Air Boeing 737 passenger plane has come down after taking off from Jakarta, say Indonesian officials.

IMAGE: Flight JT-610 was flying from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, the main city in the Bangka Belitung Islands. Photograph: Beawiharta/Reuters

Flight JT-610, carrying 188 people, was on a scheduled flight from the Indonesian capital to Pangkal Pinang, the main city in the Bangka Belitung Islands.

It lost contact with ground control a few minutes after take-off, as it was crossing the sea.

 

“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the national search and rescue agency, said, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.

“We cannot give any comment at this moment, Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group was quoted by The Guardian. “We are trying to collect all the information and data.”

A search and rescue effort has been launched for the plane, which departed Jakarta about 6.20 am (local time) on Monday. It was scheduled to land at Pangkal Pinang at 7.20 am (local time).

Lion Air is a budget airline based in Indonesia. 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.