Plane With 50 Passengers Aboard Missing Minutes After Take-off

A Boeing 737-500 carrying 50 passengers has gone off radar, Ekohotblog can report

Authorities in Indonesia declared the plane missing moments after it took off from Jakarta, the country’s capital.

Contact with the pilots was lost minutes after the Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 departed the capital for the city of Pontianak on the island of Bornéo, BBC quoted officials to have said.

According to Flightradar24, a flight-tracking service, the 27-year-old plane lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than 60 seconds, four minutes after taking off.

The transport ministry said it last had contact with the plane around 2:40pm. local time, and that efforts are underway to locate its whereabouts.

Sriwijaya Air, a local carrier, in a statement said details of the development are still sketchy and not much is known yet.

The airline added that it was “in contact with various related parties to get more detailed information” regarding the incident and would release further details immediately they come.

CNN is reporting that Indonesia’s search and rescue agency has sent a ship to some islands to the north of Jakarta’s coast to check the location where the plane is suspected to have lost contact.

Note: Featured image was for illustration.