A Marvel backpack has been found by divers sifting through the wreckage of a missing passenger plane which crashed into the sea on Saturday.
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 was carrying 62 people, including 10 children, when it disappeared from radars minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia.
Fishermen in the area then heard what they thought was an explosion as the plane hit the water.
Divers have been searching for the aircraft’s flight data recorder, known as the black box, to help determine the cause of the crash.
Chilling underwater footage showed the backpack among debris from the flight. There are not believed to be any survivors of the crash, authorities have said. All of those on-board were Indonesian nationals, including three babies and seven other children.
An investigator with Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said the debris showed the Sriwijaya Air jet may have broken apart when it hit the water.
Nurcahyo Utomo said, “We don’t know for sure, but if we look at the debris, they’re scattered in an area that is not too wide. It possibly ruptured when it hit waters because if it had exploded mid-air, the debris would be distributed more widely.”
Over the weekend photographs, posts and final messages of passengers and crew on-board the flight were shared by their devastated families online.
Ratih Windania had shared a selfie with her children shortly before they boarded the plane together. She wrote on the image, “Bye bye family. We’re heading home for now.”
The family had originally planned to take a different flight, but changed at the last minute, her brother Irfansyah Riyanto said.
Captain Afwan, 54, a former air force pilot and dad-of-three, was in charge of the flight. His nephew told how he had apologised to his children for leaving them again before setting off.
Captain Afwan’s co-pilot Diego Mamahit is also missing following the crash. His brother Chris was asked to provide a blood sample by police.
Chris said, “I believe my younger brother survived, these are just for the police procedure. Diego is a good man, we still believe Diego survived.”
