Lion Air with 189 people onboard crashes in Western Indonesia

Indonesia's search and rescue agency said on October 29 that a Lion Air passenger flight from Jakarta, the capital, to the city of Pangkal Pinang off the island of Sumatra, had crashed into the sea.

File photo of a Lion Air plane. A Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from the Jakarta airport at 6.20am local time and lost contact at 6.33am. (Photo: AFP)
File photo of a Lion Air plane. A Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from the Jakarta airport at 6.20am local time and lost contact at 6.33am. (Photo: AFP)

"It has been confirmed that it has crashed," Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the agency, said by text message, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.

The plane lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff, according to the official. The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, according to air tracking service Flightradar 24.

There are 189 people onboard the Lion Air plane, Xinhua reported.

Xinhua, Reuters