Lion Air plane crashes into sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Monday morning
File photo of a Lion Air plane. A Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from the Jakarta airport at 6.20am local time and lost contact at 6.33am.PHOTO: AFP
PUBLISHED34 MIN AGO
UPDATED25 SEC AGO
THE STRAITS TIMES
JAKARTA - The Indonesian authorities have mounted a search and rescue operation for a Lion Air plane which has crashed into sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Monday (Oct 29) morning.
The Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from the Jakarta airport at 6.20am local time and lost contact with air traffic controllers at 6.33am. The Boeing 737 was orginally scheduled to arrive at Pangkal Pinang at 7.20am.
“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.
A tugboat notified the Tanjung Priok sea port’s Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) that it had spotted a plane plunging into the waters on Monday morning, according to Jakarta-based Elshinta radio.
It is not clear how many passengers and crew were on board the plane.
In December 2014, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 carrying 162 people plunged into the Java Sea after taking off from Surabaya to Singapore.