An Indonesian plane crashes into the sea, all 189 aboard are dead

JAKARTA (Reuters) – An Indonesian airliner crashed into the sea on Monday, resulting in the loss of 189 people on board, while it was trying to get back to Jakarta a few minutes after takeoff.

The Lion Air JT610 flight, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was en route from the capital to Pangkal Pinang, in the center of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining area. Relief officials said they 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 the passengers are dead, the accident will be the second air disaster since 1997, said industry experts.

(Graphic: Indonesian Air Accident – tmsnrt.rs/2OZPYBz)

The pilot had requested to return to base (RTB) shortly after take-off. 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 is not far from the main wreck and can be found quickly," he said, referring to the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

The head of the search and rescue agency, Muhmmad Syaugi, said at a press conference that no distress signal had been received from the plane's emergency transmitter.

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

At least 23 government officials, four employees of the tin miner PT Timah, and three employees of a Timah subsidiary were on the plane. A Lion Air official said that an Italian passenger and an Indian pilot were on board.

Speaking in a hospital, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, tears finance minister, paid tribute to the 21 officials in her department on the cursed theft which she said "died in the line of duty" .

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

Sirait refused to specify the nature of the problem but said that none of his other appliances 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, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's single-aisle jet.

Private airline Lion Air said the plane had been flying since August and that its pilot and co-pilot had accumulated 11,000 flying hours.

PERSONAL BELONGINGS

On tarpaulins at the port of Jakarta, officers exposed objects found in the sea, ranging from oxygen bottles to personal belongings such as wallets, a cell phone, money and backpacks.

The authorities told Metro TV that 24 bags containing body parts had been taken to the hospital for identification, and that there were still others left overnight.

A witness from Karawang District, the closest to the scene of the accident, said he heard an explosion on the beach.

"I thought it was thunder, but it was different from the thunder -" boom "it was noisy," said Dadang Hambali.

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

Bambang Suryo, chief operating officer of the search and rescue agency, said the divers had stopped searching for the night, but the sonar vessels would continue to search for the fuselage, where many victims would be trapped.

An underwater drone is also trying to find the wreckage, he said.

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 people on board arrived at Jakarta Airport and Pangkal Pinang.

"Be patient, pray the best for Dad," said a woman arriving at Jakarta airport to a crying girl. The woman refused to talk to reporters.

Boeing said that he was deeply saddened by the loss and that he was ready to provide technical assistance for the investigation.

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

FlightRadar24 data show that the first sign of a problem occurred about two minutes after the start of the flight, when 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 aircraft was leased to CMIG Aviation Capital, a branch of the China Minsheng Investment Group, according to the Flightglobal Ascend database.

The worst air disaster in Indonesia occurred in 1997, when an A300 Garuda Indonesia crashed in the city of Medan, killing 234 people.

Founded in 1999, Lion Air's only fatal accident dates back to 2004 when an MD-82 crashed on landing in Solo City, killing 25 people, Aviation Flight Safety Network announced. 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.