Authorities have pinpointed the location of two black boxes from a crashed Indonesian jet, they said Sunday, referring to cockpit voice and flight data recorders that could be crucial to understanding what happened to the aircraft, which had 62 people aboard.
"We have located the position of the black boxes, both of them," said Soerjanto Tjahjanto, head of Indonesia's transport safety agency.
The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 went into a steep dive about four minutes after it left Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Jakarta on Saturday afternoon.
A military vessel picked up the plane's signal, and divers recovered wreckage from around 23 metres below the water's surface, the transport ministry said Sunday, citing Indonesia's military chief Hadi Tjahjanto.
Indonesia's President Joko Widodo expressed his "deep condolences," and called on citizens to "pray together so that victims can be found".
No hope of finding survivors
The on-going search involving helicopters and a flotilla of warships appeared to offer no hope of finding any survivors.
The search and rescue agency said it had so far collected five body bags with human remains as well as debris from the crash site.
A child's clothing, a broken tyre and wheel, life jackets and wreckage from the plane were found, according to authorities and reporters on the scene.
All 62 people on board, passengers and crew, were Indonesians, authorities said.
This is what we know about Sriwijaya Air flight #SJ182 based on ADS-B data.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 9, 2021
Route: Jakarta to Pontianak
Callsign: SJY182
Aircraft: Boeing 737-500, PK-CLC
Take off: 07:36 UTC
Highest altitude: 10,900 feet
Last altitude: 250 feet
Signal lost: 07:40 UTChttps://t.co/fNZqlIR2dz pic.twitter.com/CPzFJdsuJZ
Sudden 3,000 metre descent
Data from FlightRadar24 indicated that the airliner reached an altitude of nearly 11,000 feet (3,350 metres) before dropping suddenly to 250 feet. It then lost contact with air traffic control.
The transport minister said on Saturday that the jet appeared to deviate from its intended course just before it disappeared from radar.
Poor weather, pilot error or a technical problem were potential factors, said Jakarta-based aviation analyst Gerry Soejatman.
"But it's way too early to conclude anything," he added.
(with AFP)
