Yesterday Travel Radar reported a missing 737-500 aircraft, presumed to have crashed in the Java Sea, Indonesia. We can now provide a further update as of 1100z (10th January 2021): The Indonesia’s Transport Ministry confirmed that Search and Rescue is still undergoing and 2 Blackboxes have been recovered; Signalling the aircraft has indeed crashed.
Presumed to have crashed
According to the information from reporters on the ground, there was a total 62 souls onboard; This included 2 pilots and 4 cabin-crew. The Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Flight Data Recorder’s have been recovered and are soon to be sent to a local laboratory, to retrieve flight data which should provide a deeper insight to what happened.
Rescue Team staff locating the debris, are currently holding wreckage believed to be from the plane.
The suspected Emergency Slide Assembly has been recovered from the wreckage.
About the Accident:
A passenger aircraft with more than 62 souls onboard had lost contact from air traffic control shortly after take-off from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, the company headquarters and the capital airport of Indonesia.
Flight tracking website, Flightradar24, showed the aircraft had lost more than 3,000m (approximately 10,000ft) during the climb, via the assigned Standard Instrument Departure (SID) route. The aircraft was on track when it started to loose altitude rapidly.
Spokesperson, Adita Irawati, for the Indonesian Transportation Ministry said in a statement:
“The missing plane is currently under investigation and under coordination with the National Search and Rescue Agency and the National Transportation Safety Committee,”
The flight was operating as Flight Number SJ182, a Boeing 737-500 (Registration: PK-CLC – pictured above) took off at 1400 local time (0700 UTC) at Jakarta and followed the climb path, enroute to Pontianak in the West Kalimantan province, officials said. The transport ministry said an emergency response plan has been activated, and some potential debris has also been found from the accident site – though this is yet to be verified.
The 26 years old aircraft was served to Continental Air Lines and United Airlines in the USA. after the first flight in 1994 and handed over to the Sriwijaya Air( Reg: PK-CLC) in 2012 for the booming domestic market in the country.
Islanders nearby released videos to the media, showing wreckage, cables and fragments of jeans being pulled from the Java Sea. Reports of the aircraft crashing into the ocean are now presumed to be correct.
Nearby islanders are finding wreckage in the Java Sea 👇🏽 #SJ182 pic.twitter.com/dQ9FmNvmCh
— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) January 9, 2021
Was weather a possible cause?
A Metrological Report (METAR) has been released at the time of the crash:
From this, analysts have noticed remarks of a major Thunderstorms, precipitation and cumulonimbus clouds being reported at 1600ft in the vicinity of the airport. The visibility were identified as 4000 metres due to the adverse weather. These are not ideal conditions for flight.
About Sriwijaya Air
Sriwijaya Air is an Indonesian airline based in Jakarta with its headquarters located at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Area in Tangerang, near Jakarta.
Sriwijaya Air is the country’s third largest carrier, operating a fleet of narrow-body aircraft (mostly Boeing), and offers flights to various Indonesian destinations and a few international destinations.
Our team continue to closely monitor the accident and update when further information is available.
