Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air lost contact with one of its passenger planes shortly after take-off from the capital Jakarta, the country’s transport ministry said Saturday.
Authorities have started search and rescue operations for the missing plane, according to Adita Irawati, a spokeswoman for the transport ministry.
“It last made contact at 2:40 pm (0740 GMT).”
It was unclear how many passengers and crew were aboard the Boeing 737-500 and the budget airline said it was investigating the incident.
The aircraft was scheduled to take off from Jakarta at 1:40 p.m. local time, the FlightRadar24 website showed. Sriwijaya Air representatives couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Pontianak is a city on the island of Borneo, part of the Indonesian archipelago.
Details to follow