Sriwijaya Air Crash: Search teams hunt for wreckage and black box

Sriwijaya plane crash updates

An Indonesian plane Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 got missing unfortunately, giving rise to numerous speculations and apprehensions. The plane left Jakarta with 62 passengers on board but lost the connection with radar on its way to Borneo Island on Saturday. Since then, search teams have been scrounging for the plane in every plausible spot. The discoveries of aircraft parts and human remains suggest a fatal crash but one can't conclude the reasons without recovery of black box that has been located. "It is a 24 hour operation," an official announced while stressing on the gravity of matter. "The sooner we can find the victims, the better," MS Rasman, head of search team told the reporters.

According to sources, around 2600 personnel are currently working in search and rescue operations along with dozens of boats and helicopters gathering the body parts, wreckage and passengers' clothing from 23 m deep waters. The evidence suggests splitting of aircraft in half and then dismantling of pieces leaving almost no trace of life. There are around 50 ships involved in the search of SJ182 along with 13 aircrafts.

Based on debris found so far, there is no hope for living survivors while Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) told the authorities that they might find black box by today. "It has probably ruptured while hitting the water as it exploded in the mid-air," said Nurcahyo Utomo.

The plane departed from Jakarta's main airport at 14:36 local time on Saturday. At 14:40 the last contact with the plane was recorded. The flight was headed to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province in the west of island Borneo which usually takes 90 minutes. There were about 50 passengers on board including 7 children and 3 babies and there were 12 crew members. The capacity of the plane was 130 while everyone was Indonesian as told by officials. The plane is expected to have descended by more than 3000m (10,000 ft) in less than a minute. Witnesses in nearby areas claim to have heard at least one explosion.