Foreign Affairs

More Than 180 People Feared Dead After Indonesian Plane Crashes Into The Sea

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One hundred eighty-nine passengers on a Lion Air flight from Jakarta, Indonesia, are feared dead after the plane crashed into the sea shortly 13 minutes after takeoff Monday.

Authorities have already recovered enough human remains to fill nine body bags, although it is “unclear from how many victims the remains had come,” reported The New York Times. At least six bodies have been recovered, and search and rescue operations are continuing around the clock, reported CNN.

Officials are not optimistic that they will find any survivors out of the 181 passengers, including three children, and eight crew members who were on the flight.

“I suspect all the passengers are dead,” Marine Brig. Gen. Bambang Suryo, director of operations for Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, said according to The Times.

The passengers were headed for Pangkal Pinang, a city on an island off the coast of Sumatra. The flight was only supposed to last an hour and 10 minutes, according to ABC News.

The pilot tried to return to base within two or three minutes of taking off, but about 10 minutes later, the place fell into the sea, reported ABC News.

The plane had experienced a “technical problem” on its preceding flight from Bali to Jakarta but that issue had been fixed, Lion Air president-director Edward Sirait told ABC News. Weather was reportedly not a factor in the crash.

And 162 people died when an AirAsia flight from Indonesian port city Surabaya crashed in to the sea in December 2014, according to ABC News.

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