Divers find debris, body parts at Indonesian plane crash site

Indonesian divers have located parts of the wreckage of a Boeing 737-500 in the Java Sea, officials said, as rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of clothing and scraps of metal from the waters where the Siriwijaya Air Flight 182 carrying 62 people is thought to have crashed.

A military vessel “found the signal from” the aircraft on Sunday and divers recovered parts of the plane from around 23 metres (75 feet) below the water’s surface, the transport ministry said in a statement, citing Indonesia’s military chief in a statement.

Hadi Tjahjanto said the objects recovered included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts.

The break in the search for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 came after sonar equipment on a navy ship detected a signal from the aircraft at a location that fit the coordinates from the last contact made by the pilots before the plane went missing on Saturday afternoon.

The plane headed to Pontianak in West Kalimantan crashed shortly after takeoff from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

It’s still unclear what caused the crash. There was no sign of survivors.

Indonesian President, Joko Widodo expressed condolences to the families and said “We are doing our best to save the victims. We pray together so that the victims can be found,” adding that he had asked the National Transport Safety Committee to conduct an investigation.

Fishermen in the area around Thousand Islands, a chain of islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion about 2:30pm (07:30 GMT) on Saturday.

Authorities established two crisis centres, one at the airport and one at the port. Families gathered to wait for news of loved ones. The 62 people on board included seven children and three babies.

Transportation Minister, Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36pm (07:36 GMT). It disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 29,000 feet (8,839 metres), he said.

Sriwijaya Air President Director Jefferson Irwin Jauwena said the plane, which was previously used by airlines in the United States, was airworthy. He told reporters on Saturday that the plane had previously flown to Pontianak and Pangkal Pinang city on the same day.

“Maintenance report said everything went well and airworthy,” Jauwena told a news conference. He said the plane was delayed due to bad weather, not because of any damage.

Founded in 2003, Jakarta-based Sriwijaya Air group flies largely within Indonesia.

The budget airline has had a solid safety record, with no on-board casualties in four incidents recorded on the Aviation Safety Network database.