All 189 passengers aboard crashed Indonesian Lion Air plane 'likely' dead
All 189 passengers and crew aboard a crashed Indonesian jet were “likely” killed in the accident, Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency (SARA) said Monday, as it announced it had found human remains.
The Lion Air Boeing 737 crashed into the sea off the Indonesian coast shortly after take-off from Jakarta this morning, according to SARA.
“The plane crashed into water about 30 to 40 metres deep,” agency spokesman Yusuf Latif told AFP.
The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control around 6:30am, about 13 minutes after it took off, bound for Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka off the coast of Sumatra island.
The National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) said there were 178 adult passengers, one child, two infants, two pilots and six cabin crew on board flight JT 610.
The transport ministry had initially said there was a total of 188 people on board. The finance ministry said around 20 of its employees were on the plane.
“My prediction is that nobody survived because the victims that we found, their bodies were no longer intact and it's been hours so it is likely 189 people have died,” agency operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters.
Indonesia’s disaster agency posted photos online of a crushed smartphone, books, bags and parts of the aircraft fuselage that had been collected by search and rescue vessels that had converged on the area.
It was not immediately clear if any foreigners were on the downed plane, which Lion said was a new, airworthy plane that had only gone into service in August.
The pilot and co-pilot had more than 11,000 hours of flying time between them, it added.
"Lion Air is very concerned about this incident and will work with relevant agencies and all parties," said spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro.