Indonesian officials have located debris but cannot yet confirm if it's from the Sriwijaya Air flight.(Supplied: Detik)

By Tasha Wibawa

'Cables, a piece of jeans, and pieces of metal on the water'

A search is underway after suspected debris from an Indonesian Sriwijaya Air flight SJ182 was found hours after the plane went missing.

The plane lost contact after taking off from Indonesian capital Jakarta on Saturday en route to the city of Pontianak in West Kalimantan province.

The Boeing 737-500 flight was carrying 62 people on board — 50 passengers which included seven children and three babies, and 12 crew members, Indonesian Communications Minister Budi Karya said

FlightRadar24 data showed the aircraft apparently lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than one minute shortly after departure from Jakarta.

The aircraft is a 27-year-old Boeing 737-500, according to registration details included in the tracking data, but the airline's chief executive told reporters the plane was in good condition.

Surachman, a local resident of Indonesia's Thousand Islands, told local media that fishermen found what appeared to be the wreckage of an aircraft in waters north of Jakarta and a search was underway.

full.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-09/ ... a/13045220

Boats are looking more comfortable every day.

Even bobbing like a cork in a force 10 gale is not as terrifying as, eg, some of those late afternoon AirAsia landings they force into in KL these days, i reckon.
Jamming those shaking like shit, chunky little jets thru the gaps between lighnting bolts in the middle of a monster monsoon storm - to make absolutely sure the tight profit line lands right on the button.

Yeah yeah, i know the safety figures - but flying does scare me nowadays, sometimes, like it never did before.

RIP to the victims.

i am curious if normal maintenance is occurring at the moment.

The flight tracker map makes it looks like the plane literally fell out of the sky, and I would not be surprised if it was due to a catastrophic failure of some sort.

RIP to all 62 passengers and crew.

crob wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:16 am i am curious if normal maintenance is occurring at the moment.

They wouldn't be able to fly if the answer was no. But Indonesia has a real reputation for half assing maintenance and operations. For a long time now.

timmydownawell wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:07 am The flight tracker map makes it looks like the plane literally fell out of the sky, and I would not be surprised if it was due to a catastrophic failure of some sort.

RIP to all 62 passengers and crew.

21 seconds to fall from 10,900 feet at a vertical speed of approx 550 kph.

Indonesia has always had a poor aviation safety record, I did a fair bit of regional air travel in my time working there and was never too comfortable with it. A colleague was an internal Garuda flight from Surabaya to Jakarta which was forced to turn back shortly after take off when the cabin started to fill with smoke, a very lucky escape.