Jakarta: An Indonesian Sriwijaya Air plane is feared to have crashed into the sea after the Boeing 737 lost contact with air traffic control in the capital Jakarta with flight tracking data showing it plunged into a steep dive minutes after take-off.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36pm (21:36 GMT) on Saturday.
The Boeing 737-500 disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 8,839 metres (29,000 feet), he said.
Sumadi told a news conference that 62 people had been on board.
A statement released by the budget airline said the plane was on an estimated 90-minute domestic flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island, around 740km (460 miles) away.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from Jakarta, said the 62 people on board included seven children and three infants and that the authorities believe they have found debris from the plane.
Washington said the plane had been delayed for more than 30 minutes due to poor weather conditions and heavy rain at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at the time of take-off.
Transport minister Sumadi said a dozen vessels, including four warships, were deployed in a search and rescue operation centred between Lancang island and Laki island, part of the Thousand Islands chain just north of Jakarta.
