JAKARTA — The Indonesian authorities have mounted a search and rescue operation for a Lion Air plane which crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta morning.

Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from Jakarta Airport at 6.20am local time and lost contact with air traffic controllers at 6.33am. The Boeing 737 was orginally scheduled to arrive at Pangkal Pinang at 7.20am.

“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” Mr Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.

Source: The Strait Times/ANN

A tugboat notified the Tanjung Priok sea port’s Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) that it spotted a plane plunging into the water on Monday morning, according to Jakarta-based Elshinta radio.

There are 178 passengers on board the plane, including two infants, one child, two pilots and five flight attendants.

In December 2014, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 carrying 162 people plunged into the Java Sea after taking off from Surabaya to Singapore. — The Straits Times/ANN