The wreckage of a missing passenger plane which crashed into the sea has been located with no signs of survivors, authorities have said.
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 was carrying 62 people, including 10 children, when it disappeared from radars on Saturday.
Officials now believe they have located the Boeing 737-500’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder in the water.
National Search and Rescue Agency head Bagus Puruhito stated that emergency signals transmitted by the devices were detected by a navy ship’s sonar system.
Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said: ‘We have determined the position of the plane’s black boxes from two signals emitted by the devices. Hopefully we can lift the black boxes in short time to determine the cause of the crash.’
Earlier today search and rescue operations found parts of the plane in the sea 75ft (23 metres) beneath the surface.
Objects found included broken pieces of fuselage with aircraft registration parts, Mr Tjahjanto said.
He went on, “We received reports from the diver team that the visibility in the water is good and clear, allowing the discovery of some parts of the plane. We are sure that is the point where the plane crashed.”
Rescuers have also retrieved body parts from the water, pieces of children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface.
The plane set off from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan province on Indonesia’s Borneo island, on Saturday afternoon, but began to nose-dive just four minutes after take off.
According to Flight Radar 24, it lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in less than a minute. The cause of the crash remains unclear.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said, “I represent the government and all Indonesians in expressing my deep condolences for this tragedy. We are doing our best to save the victims. We pray together so that the victims can be found.”
He added that he has asked the National Transport Safety Committee to carry out an investigation into what happened.
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 at about 2.30pm on Saturday.
Solihin, who goes by one name, said: “We thought it was a bomb or a tsunami since after that we saw a big splash from the water. It was raining heavily and the weather was so bad, so it was difficult to see around clearly, but we saw the splash and a big wave after the loud sound. We were very shocked and saw the plane debris and the fuel around our boat.”
All of those on-board the flight were Indonesian nationals, including three babies and seven other children.
The plane was carrying 50 passengers, six working crew members and six other crew for another flight.
Boeing said in a statement: “Our thoughts are with the crew, passengers, and their families. We are in contact with our airline customer and stand ready to support them during this difficult time.”
