Lion Air Plane Crashed in Sea Off Karawang

JAKARTA, PINUS PRESS – Lion Air flight JT610 crashed in the waters just north of Karawang on Monday, 29th of August 2018.

The plane, which carries a number of 189 people, crashed 13 minutes just after its takeoff at 6.20am Western Indonesia Time. The carrier was was en route to from Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Banten to Depati Amir Airport, Pangkalpinang in a one-hour flight.

Onboard were the pilot and co-pilot, 6 cabin crew, as well as passengers consisting of 124 men, 54 women, 1 children, and 2 infants. The captain of the flight was Bhavye Suneja, an Indian nationality who has worked with the airlines for 7 years. Suneja and his co-pilot Harvino had 11,000 hours of flying between them, according to Lion Air.

“There are 20 officials from the Ministry on Finance on that plane,” told Sri Mulyani at the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) Office. She explained that they were coming to Jakarta to commemorate the 72th National Finance Day.

The plane was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, one of the jet company’s latest and most advanced plane. It was delivered to Lion Air on August 2018 alongside with ten others of the same model.

Edward Sirait, the president director of Lion Air said the same plane had a “technical issue” on Monday but had been cleared to fly for the next morning.  “This plane previously flew from Denpasar to Cengkareng (Jakarta). There was a report of a technical issue which had been resolved according to procedure,” told Sirait.

Search and rescue operations were immediately executed by the Basarnas. After almost half a day operation, location of the plane was confirmed at 7 nautical miles (12.96 kilometers) north off the coast of Tanjung Bungin in Karawang, West Java. Muhammad Syaugi, head of Basarnas said that the plane is submerged at a depth of 30 to 35 meters.

At the time of this article, authorities are still searching for the bodies of the 189 people on board, which are feared to be dead. Further details of the incident cannot be determined yet as authorities are still looking for the black box.

Author: Willy Gunardi