A Boeing Co. passenger plane carrying 62 people crashed in the Java Sea on Saturday, Indonesian officials said.
The Sriwijaya Air jet lost contact with air traffic controllers and disappeared from the radar minutes after taking off from the country’s capital, Jakarta, transport ministry officials said. It was on a 90-minute route from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province, on the Indonesian island of Borneo, and disappeared at 2:40 pm local time, said a ministry spokeswoman, Adita Irawati.
The aircraft involved was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, according to Theodora Erika, a spokesman for Sriwijaya Air, an Indonesian carrier. Sriwijaya’s SJ182 flight departed at 2:36 pm local time, rising to a maximum altitude of 10,900 feet about four minutes later and then beginning a steep descent, according to aviation data provider Flightradar24. The aircraft’s last data signal was at an altitude of 250 feet, said Flightradar24.
Boeing said in a statement on Saturday that it was aware of the Jakarta reports and was monitoring the situation closely. CFM International, which makes the jet engines, said it was providing technical assistance to the authorities and the airline. CFM is a joint venture between General Electric Co. and Safran SA.
The Boeing aircraft is not the 737 MAX, the latest version of the company’s single-aisle jet family, which stopped operating almost two years ago after two fatal accidents.