Posted on 01/09/2021 9:26:45 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A Sriwijaya Air jet carrying 62 people lost contact with air traffic controllers minutes after taking off from Indonesia’s capital on a domestic flight on Saturday, and debris found by fishermen was being examined to see if it was from the missing plane, officials said.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36 p.m. The Boeing 737-500 disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 29,000 feet (8,839 meters), he said.
The airline said in a statement that the plane was on an estimated 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island. The plane was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members, all Indonesian nationals, including six extra crew for another trip.
Sumadi said a dozen vessels, including four warships, were deployed in a search-and-rescue operation centered between Lancang island and Laki island, part of the Thousand Islands chain just north of Jakarta.
Bambang Suryo Aji, the National Search and Rescue Agency’s deputy head of operations and preparedness, said rescuers collected plane debris and clothes that were found by fishermen. They handed the items over to the National Transportation Safety Committee for further investigation to determine whether they were from the missing plane.
A commander of one of the search-and-rescue ships who goes by a single name, Eko, said that fishermen found cables and pieces of metal in the water.
“The fishermen told us that they found them shortly after they heard an explosion like the sound of thunder,” Eko was quoted by TVOne as saying, adding that aviation fuel was found in the location where the fishermen found the debris.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
I wonder if there was a key witness to a key act of government corruption on that flight.
What did they know about Hillary!™?
Always Indonesia
Must be the weather again?
The article left out the most important detail of all: Were the passengers wearing their masks?!
As long as its not 737 Max
It was another 737 from Boeing. They just re-certified those planes this week. What is the matter with that jet?
Are they reproducing at an alarming rate, and we're just not paying attention?
I hope Don Lemon can get to the, er, bottom of this.
The 737 is the most common jet in the air by passenger miles. You really have to quit trolling with the MAX story. It is mostly wrong, a product of legalisitic society that would rather be right than save lifetimes of travel time.
The foreign pilots stalled the aircraft, did not override the trim, did not push the throttles to the firewall, did not lower the nose. Their airlines cheaped out on features that turned out to be critical to flight safety.
Whatever you think about CAS it is 27 steps down the failure chain and has been corrected.
Third world pilots or terrorism..
The plane has been around since the 70’s
It wasn’t a 737 Max
Nope, but Donald Trump was seen in the area carrying an SA-16 missile launch unit right near the spot where contact was lost. He’s back in the states today.
And possibly 3rd world maintenance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.