Two babies and a child among the passengers
A private Lion Air plane with 189 passengers, passengers and crew on board crashed off the coast of Indonesia, officials from the search and rescue services and the Indonesian Ministry of Transport said.
According to Sindh Rahaji, head of the Indonesian Ministry of Transport's civil aviation directorate, the plane was carrying "178 adult passengers, a child, two infants, as well as two pilots and five members of the cabin crew".
He clarified that the aircraft "asked to return" to the airport before "disappearing from the radar".
According to the search and rescue service, the plane, which was flying from the capital Jakarta to Pangal Pinan, on the island of Banga, crashed off the Indonesian coast.
Contact with the plane was lost 13 minutes after take-off, a search and rescue official said earlier, according to the Athens News Agency. The Lion aircraft is a Boeing 737 Max 8, according to the specialized website Flightradar 24.
KN SAR 224 JAKARTA DAN RIB 03 JAKARTA TIBA DI LOKASI DAN MENEMUKAN SERPIHAN2 YG DIDUGA DARI PESAWAT LION AIR JT 610#basarnas # lionairJT610 pic.twitter.com/NtbgBwFxns- Humas basarnas (@humas_basarnas) October 29, 2018
Check out the Lion Air JT 610 yang jatuh di perairan Karawang. Beberapa kapal tug boad membantu menangani evacuation. Video diambil petugas tug boad yang ada di perairan Karawang. pic.twitter.com/4GhKcRYkpG- Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) October 29, 2018