Update: It’s now confirmed that this Lion Air plane with 188 people on board has crashed, and all passengers are presumed dead. Awful…
This is an awful start to the week. It’s being reported that Lion Air Indonesia flight 610 has gone missing. The flight was scheduled to operate from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on Monday morning. It departed at 6:21AM local time, and was due to land at 7:30AM, though never made it.
We're following reports that contact has been lost with Lion Air flight #JT610 shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.
ADS-B data from the flight is available at https://t.co/zNM33cM0na pic.twitter.com/NIU7iuCcFu
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 29, 2018
This flight was operated by a new Boeing 737 MAX 8, which was just delivered to the airline in August of this year (the plane had the registration code PK-LQP). This is Boeing’s latest generation 737, and it also represents the first major accident involving a 737 MAX.
Lion Air is a low cost carrier that operates a fleet of over 100 Boeing 737 aircraft, though as of now fewer than a dozen of them are the MAX variety. Malindo Air, which is a subsidiary of Lion Air, was actually the launch customer for the aircraft.
While the plane had the capacity to seat 189 people, we don’t yet know how many people were on the flight, though I’m sure we’ll find out soon.
Lion Air has had a fair number of safety incidents over the years. Some may remember the Lion Air 737 that crashed on approach to Bali in April 2013. Amazingly enough all passengers were able to evacuate during that incident.
My thoughts are with those onboard, as well as their family and friends.
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