Lion Air flight JT-610 crashes in Indonesia

Lion Air flight JT-610 had crashed a few minutes after taking off from Jakarta. On Monday, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 passenger plane, which was scheduled to land in Pangkal Pinang, a city on an island off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, lost contact with ground contract after take-off and was declared officially crashed. It had been carrying 181 passengers and eight crew members.

It took off from Jakarta at 6:20 a.m. local time. It supposed to be a short flight and was due to arrive in Pangkal Pinang just an hour later. However, air traffic controllers had lost contact with the aeroplane at 6:33 a.m.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of public relations at Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), later confirmed that the passenger flight had crashed in the waters of Karawang. He posted photos and videos of what appeared to be debris and personal belongings from the aircraft.

All passengers, which included one infant and two babies, and the flight crew members — two pilots and five cabin crew — were feared dead. It is still not known if there are any Australians on the passengers list.

According to Flightradar24, the aircraft was new. It was delivered to Lion Air in August of this year. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 was also a new model. It has been in use since 2016 only.