Missing Lion Air 737 – UPDATE

SCREENGRAB: Flightradar24

• Flight JT610 was a Boeing 737-800 MAX, the latest version of the manufacturer’s workhorse 7373 single-aisle jet.

• The aircraft was almost brand new. It was delivered to Lion Air on August 13 this year.

• Preliminary flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft climbed to around 5,000 feet before losing height, then regaining height, before finally falling towards the sea.

• The flight’s last recorded position was about 15 km north of the Indonesian coastline, according to coordinates reported by Flightradar24.

ª Kompas TV has quoted an air traffic controller at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport as saying that take off was normal.

• The missing plane’s pilot radioed back to request a return back to the airport, according to an unnamed air traffic controller.

• “The plane crashed into water about 30 to 40 metres deep,” Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Yusuf Latif told AFP.