A plane carrying 189 people has crashed into the sea near Karawang off the coast of Jakarta in Indonesia.

Indonesian budget airline Lion Air says the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft with fight number JT 610 suffered an accident shortly after departing Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport en route to Pangkal Pinang in the Bangka Belitung Islands.

The flight was carrying 181 passengers, including one child and two infants, plus six cabin crew and two pilots.

Flight tracker Flight Radar says the Boeing 737 Max 8 took off at 06:20am local time on Monday (23:20pm UTC on Sunday) and lost signal at 06:31am (23:31pm UTC Sunday).

“Lion air is very concerned about this incident and will work with the relevant agencies and all parties in connection with this,” it said in a statement.

DEBRIS RECOVERED

According to Lion Air, the captain and co-pilot had more than 11,000 hours of combined flight experience.

Little is known about the cause of the crash at this stage, but teams from the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) have uncovered debris and remains from the plane’s wreckage.

Recovery operations are ongoing, but there are no signs of survivors from the aircraft, which is believed to be submerged at a depth of 30 to 35 metres.

“We are still doing surface and underwater searches by rescuers with diver qualifications,” stated Agus Haryono, Head of Sub-Division of Sub-deployment of Potential and Operations Control.

A Spokesperson from the Finance Ministry told the Jakarta Post that 20 ministry officials were among those onboard.

The names of those onboard are still being confirmed against the flight’s list of passengers and crew.