62 Missing as Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 Loses Contact Over Java Sea

Jakarta. A Sriwijaya Air flight 182 has lost contact near Thousand Islands, off the coast north of Jakarta four minutes after a departure from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten at 2:36 p.m. on Saturday, Indonesian transportation authorities said. 

"We have lost contact with a Sriwijaya Air's aircraft flying on Jakarta-Pontianak route with the SJY 182 call sign at 02:40 p.m. West Indonesia Time," Novie Riyanto, the director-general of air transportation at the Transportation Ministry, said on Saturday. 

The ministry is working with the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) and the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Novie said. 

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Pontianak at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday. A flight manifest seen by the Jakarta Globe showed the Boeing 737-524 aircraft was carrying 62 crews and passengers, including seven children and three babies.

Sriwijaya Air said it was still gathering information from the ground and said it would soon issue an official statement.

Data shared by Flightradar, a Swedish internet-based flight tracker, showed the Boeing 737-524 aircraft lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute. 

The aircraft was 26 years old, starting operation in May 1994, Flightradar's data showed.

The aircraft lost contact near the crash location of the ill-fated Lion Air flight 610 in 2018, which involved another Boeing aircraft, the 737 MAX. 

Sriwijaya Air is Indonesia's third-largest airline after Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia, the country's flagship carrier.