Jakarta Airport asked Lion Air pilot to return after complains of technical issue
The Lion Air flight JT 610 lost contact with air traffic control about 13 minutes after it took off, shortly after its pilot had asked to return to base.
More than 24 hours after the crash, rescue operations are still underway in Indonesia. Rescuers salvaged wreckage of the ill-fated plane, bodies, baggage and personal belongings.
Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency have taken additional effort to salvage the black-box and voice recorder from the Boeing 737 MAX 8 which sank in the Java Sea.
Meanwhile rescuers in inflatable boats retrieved human remains, pieces of aircraft and personal belongings from the Java Sea. Families of passengers and crew members gathered at crisis centres set up by the authorities at airports, hoping desperately for a miracle.
Relatives and friends wept, prayed and hugged each other as they waited at Jakarta's airport and at Pangkal Pinang's airport on Bangka island off Sumatra where the flight was headed.
After the Lion Air flight carrying 189 passengers crashed into the sea on October 29 morning, rescue officials said that there are not expecting any survivors.
The doomed Lion Air flight JT 610 that took off from Jakarta to the city of Pangkal Pinang off the island of Sumatra crashed into the sea minutes later.
President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation and urged Indonesians to “keep on praying.” About 20 Indonesian Finance Ministry staffs were on the flight.
An official of Indonesia’s safety transport committee said he could not confirm the cause of the crash, which would have to wait until the recovery of the plane’s black boxes, as the cockpit voice recorder and data flight recorder are known.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane was delivered in August and had 800 hours of flying time. It sank in waters about 30 to 35 metres depth, north of the Coast of Java Island. The aircraft was declared operationally feasible, the airline statement said.
Lion has operated 11 aircraft of the same model, the Boeing 737 Max 8, and the other planes did not have the same technical problem.
Preliminary flight tracking data from the Flightradar website, which tracks air traffic in real time from all around the world, showed the aircraft climbed to around 5,000 feet before losing, and then regaining, height, before finally falling towards the sea. It was last recorded at 3,650 feet and its speed had increased to 345 knots, the website showed.
Moments after US-based Boeing Company said it was "deeply saddened" by news of the crash, has suspended release of the 737 MAX just days out from its first commercial delivery last year due to an engine issue.
An Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja flew the Lion Air aircraft that plunged into Java Sea. At his parents’ house in Delhi’s Mayur Vihar-I, friends and family gathered through the morning as news of the crash spread – some who saw Bhavye grow up, others who grew up with him and remember him as someone they went to Karate or coaching classes with.
Suneja’s parents Sangeeta and Gulshan, and his younger sister Ruhani left for the airport, to board a flight to Jakarta. “Pray for us,” is all that Sangeeta said before leaving.
