Indonesian airplane crashes into sea with 289 on board

Indonesian investigators are examining debris from Lion Air flight JT 610 which crashed into the sea off the capital, Jakarta, Monday morning with 189 people on board.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 was carrying 181 passengers, including one child and two infants, as well as six crew members and two pilots, when it disappeared from radar during a short flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, according to Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (SAR).

The plane took off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Greater Jakarta at 6.21 a.m. local time, and had been due to land at around 7:30 a.m. in Pangkal Pinan, the largest city on the Indonesian island of Bangka.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said there were 20 ministry officials on board, who were returning to their posts in Pangkal Pinang after spending the weekend with their families in Jakarta for a public holiday.

Debris, life vests and a cellphone have been discovered in the water two nautical miles from the coordinates given as the crash site, SAR officials said. The fuselage has not yet been located.

Boats, a helicopter and 250 rescuers, including divers, were working at the crash site, some 34 nautical miles off the coast near Jakarta in the Java Sea. The frogmen are searching in water up to 35 meters (114 feet) deep.