JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The Latest on the crash of a Lion Air passenger plane in Indonesia (all times local):
7:50 p.m.
The head of Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency says the search for a crashed Lion Air plane has sighted aircraft debris and passenger belongings on the seafloor but the object thought to be the fuselage is still eluding them.
Muhammad Syaugi told reporters Wednesday that the search effort is battling strong currents but they remain confident the aircraft hull will be found.
He said the signal from the flight recorder has been detected but the strength of the currents prevented the black box from being recovered.
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 dived into the Java Sea on Monday just 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
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4 p.m.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Committee, Soerjanto Tjahjono, says pings detected at sea in the search for a crashed Lion Air plane are definitely from its flight recorder because of their regular pattern.
He said other possibilities have been eliminated because the pings occur at intervals of just under 1 second.
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
Tjahjono said a preliminary accident investigation report should be released within a month and the final report could take 4-6 months.
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3:15 p.m.
Indonesia’s transport minister says the technical director of Lion Air and staff who approved the flight of the jet that crashed have been removed from duty at the ministry’s order.
Transport Minister Budi Karya Sumadi says the airline will be subjected to a ministry inspection and operations of all low cost airlines in Indonesia will be reviewed.
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
Inspections have already been carried out on Lion Air’s other Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes, preventing them from flying.
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12 p.m.
Chilling video of passengers boarding Lion Air’s fatal Flight 610 has been broadcast on Indonesian TV.
It shows passengers’ boarding passes being checked and people walking along a concourse and then down stairs with bright red and white Lion Air jets visible on the tarmac.
At one point, the passenger who shot the video, Paul Ferdinand Ayorbaba, zooms in on the flight number on his boarding pass. A part of the video shows passengers walking up the mobile boarding stairs attached to a Lion jet.
His wife Inchy Ayorbaba, interviewed at a Jakarta police hospital where she’d taken her three children for DNA tests to help with victim identification, says: “My husband sent that video to me via WhatsApp. It was his last contact with me, his last message to me.”
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
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11:30 a.m.
Indonesia’s navy says a 22 meter (72-foot) long object suspected to be part of the crashed Lion Air jet was located at a depth of 32 meters (105 feet) in seas northeast of Jakarta.
Navy officer Haris Djoko Nugroho says in a television interview divers will be deployed after a side-scan sonar has produced a more detailed image of the object and location. He says the object was first located on Tuesday evening.
He says, “There are some small objects that we found, but last night, thank God, we found a large enough object.”
The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
Boeing’s website says the MAX 8 has a length of 39.5 meters (129 feet).
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9:15 a.m.
Indonesia’s military chief says a massive search effort has identified the possible seabed location of the crashed Lion Air jet.
The 2-month-old Boeing plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.
Hadi Tjahjanto said, “This morning I’ve been briefed by the head of Search and Rescue Agency about the strong possibility of the location coordinates” of Flight 610. “We’re going to see it ourselves on location. And hopefully that is the main body of the plane that we’ve been looking for.”
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