Jakarta: An Indonesian Lion Air aircraft with 189 people on board crashed into the Java Sea on Monday soon after take-off from Jakarta, killing all on board. Things went horribly wrong as soon the Boeing 737 Max got airborne for its destination, Pangkal Pinang. The plane, which was flown by Indian captain Bhavye Suneja, made a request to return to the airport two to three minutes after take-off and the air traffic controller cleared it. But the plane plunged into the sea about 10 minutes later.
The B737 had joined Lion Air fleet on August 15, 2018 and had flown for about 800 hours. Once the debris was located, a search and rescue operation was launched. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation and urged Indonesians to "keep on praying." Distraught family members gathered at crisis centres set up by the authorities at airports, hoping desperately for a miracle. But no survivors were found, said Bambang Suryo Aji, director of operations at the Search and Rescue Agency. He said, “My projection is there is no survivor. The bodies of the victims already found were not intact any more. It is very likely that all 189 people are dead.”
‘Bhavye wanted to return to India’
The VP of a leading airline in India that operates the Boeing 737 said Suneja was considering returning to India. “We spoke this in July. He was a very sweet person. Being an experienced pilot of the B737 with an incident-free record, we were keen to have him with us because of his impeccable credentials. His only request was that he wanted a Delhi posting as he is from the city,” said the senior official.
“Since most of the pilots are from north India and they want Delhi posting, I told him that once he flies with us for a year we will consider his posting in Delhi. He wanted our assistance in getting an Indian ATPL (commander’s licence). Some other pilots from Lion Air have also joined us recently,” said the official. Captain Suneja had over 6,000 flight hours of experience. The couple’s family and friends were waiting for them to come home for Diwali this weekend.
Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June this year. The US lifted a decade-long ban in 2016.
The flight took off from Jakarta around 6.20 a.m was due to land in Pangkal Pinang, capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region, at 7.20 a.m. Data from FlightRadar24 shows the first sign of something amiss was around two minutes into the flight, when the plane had reached 2,000 feet (610 m).
