4 minutes after take-off

An Indonesian Boeing 737 carrying 62 passengers, including 10 children, crashed

Relatives of the passengers of the ill-fated plane await news at Jakarta Airport.

A.F.B.

Indonesia sent two ships yesterday to the site that is "likely" to be an Indonesian "Boeing 737-500" airliner, which crashed into the sea, minutes after takeoff, carrying 62 passengers, including 10 children, and a crew of 12, according to Indonesian authorities announced.

"We are deploying our teams and ships to the site, where the plane is most likely to have crashed after losing contact," said Bambang Suriwagi, deputy operations of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

He confirmed in a press conference that "the location of the plane was estimated to be between Lucky Island and Lankang Island."

He added, "According to the information from the site, several pieces of debris were found, suspected to be from the plane, and they are already on our boat for further investigations."

The company's CEO, Jefferson Irwin Gawena, said the ill-fated plane was in good condition.

He also added that the flight was delayed 30 minutes before take-off, due to heavy rain.

The Indonesian Ministry of Transport announced, earlier yesterday, that Sriwigaya Airlines, funded by the Indonesian government, lost contact with a passenger plane carrying 62 people after it took off from the Indonesian capital on a domestic flight.

A spokeswoman for the Indonesian Ministry of Transport, Adita Irawati, said that a Boeing 737-500 plane took off from Jakarta at about 1:56 pm, and lost contact with the control tower at 2:40 pm.

It also added in a statement that "the investigation is still ongoing, and there is coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Committee for Transportation Safety."

For his part, the head of the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency, Pagus Puruhito, said that teams had been sent to search the waters north of Jakarta.

For its part, the airline said, in a statement, that the plane was on a 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on the Indonesian island of Borneo, with 56 passengers, including 10 children, on board.

And local media reported that parts of the wreckage in North Jakarta were found, believed to be from the plane, and some sites published video clips of what was said to be the wreckage of the plane.

The head of South Island Junaidi told the news site Kompas.com that fishermen saw an explosion near Lucky Island.

Compass also said that a team from the Ministry of Transport found parts that appear to be human parts.

In addition, the Flight Radar 24 aircraft tracking service stated on Twitter that the Indonesian plane had descended more than 10,000 feet from the altitude at which it was flying in less than one minute, only about four minutes after take-off.

She explained that the registration details contained in the tracking data indicate that the aircraft was a "Boeing 737-500" and entered service 27 years ago.

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