Divers Make Grim Discovery After Indonesia Plane Crash

Indonesian divers on Sunday located parts of the wreckage of a Boeing 737-500 at a depth of 75 feet in the Java Sea, a day after the aircraft with 62 people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, per the AP. Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said in a statement the parts included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts. Earlier, rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of clothing and scraps of metal from the surface. “Hopefully until this afternoon the current conditions and the view under the sea are still good so that we can continue the search,” he said. The break in the search for Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 came after sonar equipment on a navy ship detected a signal from the aircraft at a location that fit the coordinates from the last contact made by the pilots before the plane went missing on Saturday afternoon.

It’s still unclear what caused the crash. There was no sign of survivors. “I represent the government and all Indonesians in expressing my deep condolences for this tragedy," President Joko Widodo said. Fishermen in the area between Lancang and Laki islands, part of an archipelago around Thousand Islands north of Jakarta’s coast, reported hearing an explosion around 2:30pm Saturday. Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said Flight SJ182 was delayed for an hour before it took off at 2:36pm. It disappeared from radar four minutes later, after the pilot contacted air traffic control to ascend to an altitude of 29,000 feet, he said. There were 62 people on board, including seven children and three babies.