Indonesian authorities have confirmed that a missing Lion Air plane that lost contact with air traffic controllers early Monday crashed into the sea shortly after take-off.
Channel News Asia quoted Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, shortly after the crash as confirming the aircraft had gone down.
The news channel later reported there were 181 people– including two infants, one child and eight crew members – on board. But other reports said there were 189 on board, including seven crew.
The Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from the Jakarta airport at the 6.20am local time and lost contact at 6.33am. The Boeing 737 Max 8 was originally scheduled to arrive at Pangkal Pinang at 7.20am in Pangkalpinang on Bangka Belitung province.
A shipping traffic officer in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Suyadi, told The Jakarta Post that he has received a report from a tugboat, AS Jaya II, that the crew had seen a downed plane in Tanjung Bungin in Karawang, West Java.
"At 7:15 am the tugboat reported it had approached the site and the crew saw the debris of a plane," Suyadi said.
Two other ships, a tanker and a cargo ship, near the location were approaching the site, he said, and a Basarnas rescue boat was also on the way.
Lion Air Group chief executive Edward Sirait said the airline could not comment at this time.
"We are trying to collect all the information and data," he said.
The last major accident in Indonesia was in December 2014 when an AirAsia Indonesia’s Airbus A320 aircraft crashed into the waters after taking off from Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.
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