A Sriwijaya Air passenger plane lost contact with air traffic controllers after taking off from Jakarta on a domestic flight Saturday, officials said.
The jet, a Boeing 737-500, was carrying 62 people, according to CBS News reports.
Indonesia’s Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36 p.m. The plane disappeared from radar four minutes later.
Tracking service Flightradar24 said the plane lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute.
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A statement released by the airline said the plane was on an estimated 90-minute flight from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo Island. There were 56 passengers and six active crew members onboard.
Bambang Suryo Aji, the National Search and Rescue Agency’s deputy head of operations and preparedness, said rescuers collected plane debris and clothes that were found by fishermen. They handed the items over to the National Transportation Safety Committee for further investigation, to determine whether they were from the missing aircraft.
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