Crashed plane was airworthy: Lion Air

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Lion Air's Boeing 737 Max 8 flight JT 610 that crashed in the waters of Tanjung Karawang en route from Jakarta to Pangkalpinang on Monday was airworthy, the airline stated. The aircraft, bearing registration number PK-LQP, is a Boeing 737 Max 8.

"The aircraft was manufactured in 2018 and had only been operated by Lion Air since Aug 15. The plane was airworthy," the airlines' Corporate Strategic Communications Danang Mandala noted in a statement received here on Monday.

Lion Air JT 610 crashed 13 minutes after departing from the Soekarno Hatta airport in Jakarta at 6:20 a.m. local time at coordinates of 05 46.15 degrees South latitude and 107 07.16 degrees East longitude.

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The aircraft carried 178 adult passengers, a child and two infants, three stewardesses on training, and a technician, in addition to the pilot Capt. Bhavye Suneja, copilot Harvino, and six cabin crews.

The pilot and copilot have six thousand hours and five thousand hours of flying time respectively.

"We are deeply concerned about the incident and will cooperate with related institutions on the case," he noted.

Lion Air has opened a crisis center at 021-80820000 and information on passengers is available at 021-80820002. The airlines has promised to share the latest information regarding the incident, he added.

Meanwhile,The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has found debris of the Lion Air JT610 plane that crashed in Tanjung Kerawang waters in West Java, Basarnas head M Syaugie said. "The Basarnas team has found the debris, life jackets, and body parts," Syaugie told the press at the Basarnas headquarters here on Monday.

Syaugie said the team received information from the air traffic control that an airplane departed from Jakarta toward Pangkaplpinang in Bangka Belitung Province had lost contact at 06.50 a.m.

The airplane carrying 188 people were last detected at a coordinate of 05 46.15 South latitude and 107 07.16 East longitude. "We have deployed ships and helicopter to the location for checking. The debris and some belongings were found at around two nautical miles south of the coordinate where the airplane was reportedly lost contact," he said.

The location of the crash is predicted to have a depth of around 30 to 35 meters. The search and rescue team would deploy divers to find the airplane's body.

"Hopefully we can find it soon," he said, adding that Basarnas has deployed 130 personnel and 30 divers from its offices in Jakarta, Bandung of West Java and Lampung.

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