Lion Air Passenger Plane Crashes Just After Take-Off from Jakarta
Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) confirmed that Lion Air Flight JT 610 has crashed into the sea near Karawang (West Java). The plane was en route from the nation's capital city of Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, the capital of the Bangka Belitung Islands province.
The flight, operated by Indonesia's biggest low-budget carrier Lion Air, took off from Soekarno-Hatta International airport (located just outside Jakarta) at 06:20 am local time and was scheduled to arrive at Pangkal Pinang at 07:20 am local time on Monday morning (29/10).
However, at 06:33 am the pilots of the Lion Air plane lost contact with the ground when it was in the sky above the sea near Karawang (West Java). Just before contact was lost the pilots requested permission to "return to base", implying they detected a problem.
Sindu Rahayu, Civil Aviation Head at the Directorate General of the Ministry of Transportation, said the airplane carried 181 passengers, consisting of 178 adults, one child, and two babies. The crew consisted of two pilots and five flight attendants. Thus, a total of 188 people are feared to have died in the crash. The jet - a Boeing 737 MAX 8 - can carry up to 200 passengers. Reportedly, 20 passengers were staff of the Finance Ministry.
Reportedly, it is the first accident that involves the popular Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX airplanes were introduced in 2017. The Lion Air Boeing that crashed was manufactured in 2018 and had only been operated by Lion Air since 15 August 2018.
At 10:54 local Jakarta time Indonesia Investments received a statement from Danang Mandala Prihantoro, Corporate Communications Strategic of Lion Air Lion Air. He confirmed that the airplane was involved in an accident, while carrying 178 passengers. The aircraft was commanded by Captain Bhavye Suneja with Harvino as copilot (with the captain having more than 6,000 flight hours and the copilot more than 5,000 flight hours). The cabin crew consisted of six people. Thus, based on this statement, 186 people were killed in the crash.
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Should put all Indonesian airlines on ban again... my god ... what a disgrace