Indonesia plane missing: What happened to Boeing 737 flight?
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An Indonesian plane flown by Sriwijaya Air with more than 50 people on board has lost contact after taking off from Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday. The Boeing 737 was travelling to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province local media have reported.
As yet, no information on what happened to the plane has been given, and Sriwijaya Air is gathering information.
Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Karya told a news conference 62 people had been aboard, including 12 crew.
Bagus Puruhito, head of the country's search and rescue agency Basarnas, said teams had been dispatched to search the waters north of Jakarta.
Indonesian authorities said they had recovered pieces of wreckage and body parts on Sunday from the waters north of the capital where Sriwijaya Air Flight SJ 182 disappeared in rainy weather.
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Management of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have opened a crisis centre post for family members of those onboard the lost flight in Tangerang, Indonesia.
Reliable flight tracking service Flightradar24 said on its Twitter feed Flight SJ182 "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.
The plane is described as a Boeing 737-500 “classic” with registration number PK-CLC (MSN 27323).
Indonesian authorities said they had tracked signals likely from the plane's black boxes on Sunday.
Police have asked families to provide information to help identify any bodies retrieved such as dental records and DNA samples.
A Boeing spokeswoman said, "We are aware of media reports from Jakarta, and are closely monitoring the situation.
"We are working to gather more information".
Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 had departed from Jakarta to Pontianak in Indonesia around 7.40am local time.
Contact was lost with the plane just minutes after takeoff.
Tracking data on the plane showed its last known location as just south of Lancang Island.
Sriwijaya Air, an Indonesian airline, said in a statement it is still gathering more detailed information regarding the flight before it can make any statement.
Surachman, a local government official, told Kompas TV fishermen found what appeared to be the wreckage of an aircraft in waters north of Jakarta and a search was underway.
Other channels have shown pictures of suspected wreckage.
Zulkifli, a security official, told CNNIndonesia.com: "We found some cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal on the water.
In recent years previous aircraft incidents involving Boeing 737s have been recorded.
In late 2018, a Boeing 737 MAX operated by Indonesian airline Lion Air crashed off Jakarta in late 2018, killing all 189 passengers and crew.
The plane which lost contact on Saturday is a much older model.
Nurhasan, a fisherman in the area known as Thousand Islands, told local media that he and his crew had found several pieces of metal.
It was raining at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport when the plane took off for Pontianak, around 740 km (460 miles) away.
Video images from the airport showed pictures of relatives of the passengers in tears as they awaited news of what had happened.
Rescue official Agus said 50 people were taking part in the search and that they would search into the night.
Founded in 2003, Jakarta-based Sriwijaya Air group flies largely within Indonesia.
The airline has a solid safety record until now, with no onboard casualties in four incidents recorded on the Aviation Safety Network database, though a farmer was killed when a Boeing 737-200 left the runway in 2008 following a hydraulic problem.