Contact lost with Lion Air passenger plane

A Lion Air commercial plane arrives at the Mutiara Sis Al Jufri airport in Palu, Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi on October 7, 2018, following the September 28 earthquake and tsunami.  AFP FILE PHOTO

JAKARTA — The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (Basarnas) received a report on Monday morning that air traffic control had lost contact with a Lion Air flight from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang in Bangka Belitung.

A vessel traffic service officer in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, Suyadi, told The Jakarta Post that at 6:45 a.m. he received a report from a tugboat, AS Jaya II, that the crew had seen a downed plane, suspected to be a Lion Air plane, in Tanjung Bungin in Karawang, West Java.

We’re following reports that contact has been lost with Lion Air flight #JT610 shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.

“At 7:15 a.m. the tugboat reported it had approached the site and the crew saw the debris of a plane,” Suyadi said. As of 9 a.m. there was no report about passengers or the plane crew, he said.

Two other ships, a tanker and a cargo ship, near the location were approaching the site, he said, and a Basarnas rescue boat was also on the way.

Information gathered by the Post said that the plane, Lion Air 610, took off from Jakarta at 6:20 a.m. and contact was lost at 6:33 a.m.