A Sriwijaya Air plane lost contact after taking off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on Saturday, a Transport Ministry spokesperson said.
A search and rescue operation is underway for Flight SJ182 which took off from Jakarta en route to Pontianak, the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, but lost contact as it crossed the Java sea.
It is unclear how many people were travelling on the short flight, but local media reported more than 50 passengers were on board.
” There has been a lost contact with the Sriwijaya aircraft on the route from Jakarta to Pontianak with the SJY 182 call sign,” said Transport Ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati.
Tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed that the plane “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, Flightradar24 said.
Sriwijaya Air said in a statement it was “still in contact with various related parties to get more detailed information,” which added that “management is still communicating and investigating this matter.”
This is a breaking news story please check back for updates.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
