Lion Air Flight Crashes Into Ocean off Indonesian Coast

Budget Airline Lion Air Flight Crashes Into Ocean off Indonesian Coast

The Indonesian government has confirmed that a Lion Air flight that lost contact with air traffic control 13 minutes after takeoff has crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia.  The flight was scheduled to fly from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang on Bangka Belitung province.  The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX.

Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said, “It has been confirmed that it has crashed.”  Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing.

The CEO of the airline, Edward Sirait, said, “We cannot give any comment at this moment.  We are trying to collect all the information and data.”

Flight Radar 24 showed the following flight path for JT610, the plane that crashed.  Flight Radar data also shows that the plane was delivered to Lion Air in August.  The company is tracking flight data from the flight, but they said, “preliminary data show an increase in speed and decrease in altitude at last transmission”.

It is not currently know how many passengers and crew members were onboard the flight.

This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.