Indonesian authorities say that they have found the location in the Java Sea where Sriwijaya Air flight SJY 182, a Boeing 737 passenger plane, crashed briefly after take-off from Jakarta.
The plane, with 62 passengers on board, was on its way to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province when it disappeared from the radar a few minutes into its journey on Saturday.
The officials said that on Sunday, signals from the plane’s flight recorder were recorded. Ten navy ships were then deployed into the sea with divers to help locate the crash site. Four planes were also deployed to assist the search.
“We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane,” Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said in a statement. “We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”
It is still unclear what caused the crash.
The investigators are analyzing the wreckage what was pulled out of the sea. Human remains were also found at the crash site, along with pieces of cloth and scraps of metal. There are no signs of survivors yet.
According to the details, the Sriwijaya Air flight SJY 182 took off from the Indonesian capital Jakarta and was headed to the city of Pontianak. 11 nautical miles and four minutes into the journey, the plane lost contact with the control centre and suddenly dropped 10,000 feet – 3000 metres – in less than a minute before completely disappearing from the radar.
Witnesses of the incident say that they heard at least one explosion, ostensibly that of the plane crashing into the sea. One fisherman told the media that the “plane fell like lightning into the sea and exploded in the water. It was pretty close to us, the shards of a kind of plywood almost hit my ship.”