Rescue workers have found body parts off the coast of Java, near the location where a plane carrying 62 passengers disappeared shortly after takeoff Saturday. The human remains are believed to have come from the aircraft’s occupants. Personal belongings have also been found, says a spokesman for the police in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
Several boats and divers have gone to the site where fishermen had already found wreckage. These include possible pieces of an inflatable slide, cables and a piece of jeans.
Sriwijaya Air’s flight SJ 182 was en route to Pontianak, 700 kilometers to the north, in the province of West Kalimantan. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-500, took off at 1.40 pm local time (7.40 am Dutch time) for a flight of approximately 1.5 hours.
Fifty passengers and twelve crew members were on board the aircraft of the Indonesian airline Sriwijaya Air. The last contact with the crew took place only 20 kilometers from the airport, when the plane was flying over the sea.
The aircraft lost more than 3,300 meters altitude in less than a minute a few minutes after take-off, according to the website Flightradar.
It is still unclear what happened to the device. Authorities suspect the plane has crashed.
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