JAKARTA: An Indonesian budget airline plane with 62 people on board is suspected to have crashed into the sea shortly after the Boeing 737 took off from Jakarta airport on Saturday, authorities said.
Flight tracking data showed the Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 plunged into a steep dive about four minutes after it left Soekarno-Hatta international airport.
Sixty-two passengers and crew were on board, including 10 children, the nation’s transport minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, told reporters.
The suspected crash site is near tourist islands just off the coast of Indonesia’s sprawling capital.
The plane took off on Saturday afternoon and a search and rescue operation began with no official results available on Saturday night.
“We deployed our team, boats and sea riders to the location suspected to be where it went down after losing…