A Lion Air plane carrying 189 people crashed into the sea Monday after taking off from Indonesia. All passengers and crew members are believed to be dead.
According to Reuters.com, Lion Air Flight JT610 took off from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta at around 6:20 a.m. local time. The plane managed to climb to an elevation of only 5,200 feet before losing contact with ground officials 13 minutes after takeoff.
The Lion Air operated the flight to Pangkal Pinang with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane that was delivered to the airline in mid-August, but initial reports suggest the aircraft experienced a technical issue on its previous flight.
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The pilot of Flight JT610 reportedly called air traffic controllers to request a return to the Jakarta airport just minutes after takeoff. Within 10 minutes of receiving approval for a return landing, the plane had crashed into the water around nine miles north of Java island.
The remains of the airlines/southwest-debuts-boeing-737-max-8.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow”>Boeing 737 MAX 8 were found a short time later in the water around 100 feet deep. More than 300 people were involved in the search, which had already recovered human remains. Survivors are not expected.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called on the transport safety commission to investigate the crash, with officials looking to find the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder in order to determine what caused the tragic accident.
