An Indonesian Lion Air passenger plane has crashed shortly after taking off from the capital Jakarta, an aviation authority official said on Monday, adding that a search and rescue operation is under way.
Flight JT-610 took off from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 6.21am local time on Monday and was headed to Pangkal Pinang.
The plane disappeared near Karawang in West Java province.
“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Agency, said by text message.
A spokesman for the air navigation company AirNav told the broadcaster Metro the Boeing 737-800 had dropped out of radio contact.
Lion Air spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro said "we can confirm that one of our flights has lost contact, its position cannot be ascertained yet".
