Indonesian plane convicted with 189 passengers on board asked to return to base

An Indonesian plane with 189 people on board crashed into the sea on Monday while it was trying to get back to the capital, Jakarta, from where it had taken off just minutes before, and that There were probably no survivors, officials said.

Lion Air's flight JT610, a nearly new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was en route to Pangkal Pinang, the capital of the tin mining region, Bangka-Belitung. Relief officials said they had found human remains at the accident site, about 15 km from the coast.

Indonesia is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, but its safety performance is uneven. If all pbadengers are dead, the accident will be the second largest air disaster in the country since 1997, industry experts said.

The pilot had asked to return to base (RTB) after taking off from the plane in Jakarta. He lost contact with the ground staff after 13 minutes.

"An RTB has been requested and approved, but we are still trying to understand why," said Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of the Indonesian Transport Safety Committee, to the press, referring to the pilot's request.

"We hope that the black box will not be far from the main wreck and will therefore be found quickly," he said, referring to the badpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

Muhmmad Syaugi, director of the search and rescue agency, said at a press conference that "no distress signal had been received from him". emergency transmitter of the aircraft.

Yusuf Latief, spokesman for the National Agency for Search and Rescue, said that there were probably no survivors.

At least 23 government members, 4 employees of PT Timah, a state tin miner, and 3 employees of a Timah subsidiary, were on board the plane. A Lion Air official said that an Italian pbadenger and an Indian pilot were on board.

Edward Sirait, general manager of Lion Air Group, told reporters that the plane had had a technical problem on a flight connecting the Bali seaside island to Jakarta, but what about had been "resolved in accordance with the procedure".

Sirait refused to specify the nature of the problem, but said that none of his other devices of this model had the same problem. Lion had operated 11 Boeing 737 MAX 8s and he had no intention of anchoring them to the ground, he said.

The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated and more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's single-aisle jet.

Lion Air private companies stated that the aircraft had been in service since August, that it was airworthy and that its pilot and co-pilot had accumulated 11,000 hours flight.

& # 39; BE PATIENT & # 39;

The plane descended into waters of a depth of about 30 to 35 meters (98 to 115 feet).

Bambang Suryo, operational director of the search and rescue agency, said that about 150 lifeguards and 40 divers were on the site, using an underwater drone to search for the fuselage, where many of the victims would be trapped.

"We have to find the main wreck," he told reporters.

Another agency official, Deden Ridwansyah, said the authorities were focusing on a radius of about 1 nautical mile based on debris found in the water and that spotlights would be used to search the night.

The flight took off on a clear day at approximately 6:20 am and was scheduled to land at Pangkal Pinang at 0720.

Distraught parents of pbadengers went to Jakarta Airport and Pangkal Pinang.

"Be patient, pray for Daddy's best," said a woman arriving at the Jakarta airport to a crying girl.

The woman refused to talk to reporters.

President Joko Widodo said at a press conference that the authorities were focusing on search and rescue. He called for prayer and support for the country.

Boeing was deeply saddened by the loss, he said in a statement, and was ready to provide technical badistance for the investigation.

Under international rules, the US National Transportation Safety Board will automatically badist with the investigation, badisted by Boeing technical advisors and US engine manufacturer CFM International, jointly owned by General Electric and Safran.

FlightRadar24 data show that the first sign of a problem occurs after about two minutes of flight, while the aircraft had reached 2,000 feet (610 m).

He descended more than 152 m (152 m) and turned left before climbing to 1,524 m (5,000 m), where he remained for most of the flight.

He began to gain speed in the last moments and reached 345 knots (397 mph) before the data was lost while it was 3,650 feet (1,113 m).

The worst air disaster in Indonesia took place in 1997, when an A300 from Garuda Indonesia crashed in the city of Medan, killing 214 people.

Founded in 1999, Lion Air's only fatal accident was in 2004: an MD-82 crashed while landing at Solo City, killing 25 out of 163, according to the airline's aviation safety network. the Flight Safety Foundation.

In April, the airline announced a firm order for the purchase of 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrow-body aircraft at a list price of $ 6.24 billion. It is one of the biggest customers of the American planemaker in the world.