Human remains and black box recovered from Indonesian plane crash

The Sriwijaya Air plane was en route from Jakarta to Pontianak city on Borneo island, normally a 90-minute flight, but deviated sharply from its course shortly after take-off and went into a steep dive before crashing into the water.

Rescue missions have been deployed since to recover remains, search for the plane’s black box containing data recording and search for survivors – if there are any to be found.

It remains unclear what caused the flight to go down near a small archipelago off Jakarta, but analysts have cited such factors as bad weather, pilot error and mechanical malfunction.

The plane was carrying 50 passengers, including 10 children and 12 crew members, among the victims whose lives the crash claimed were newlyweds headed to their wedding celebration as well as a pregnant mother and a family of five.

Rescreuwer searching through the wreckage of the Indonesian plane reported yesterday that they have located the plane’s black box, which may give authorities more context as to why the plane crashed, to begin with.

This is only one the most recent crash in Indonesian aviation as the country’s safety standards have failed to keep up with the skyrocketing numbers of tourists travelling to the world’s biggest archipelagic nation of over 17,000 islands.

In 2018, a Lion Air Boeing 373 Max claimed the lives of 189 people and in 2014 an AirAsia jet crashed and claimed the lives of 162 people, and just a year later a military plane crashed shortly after take-off killing 140 people.

Sriwijaya Air had not previously recorded a fatal crash since starting operations in 2003.