Indonesian aircraft missing off Jakarta

[Airbubba]

Originally Posted by .Scott

There are many reports saying that they have picked up the pings and found the main wreckage.

Now reports say the main wreckage is not found:

Lion Air crash: Major setback in search for plane

THE search for a key piece of the puzzle in the Lion Air crash mystery has come up empty-handed, after experts believed they had finally zeroed in.

Staff writers with AP and AFP

News Corp Australia Network November 1, 2018 7:28am

THE search for downed Lion Air flight JT610 has suffered an unexpected setback after the quest to recover the body of the aeroplane came up empty-handed.

Experts believed they had finally discovered the fuselage, or main body of the aircraft, but instead, the 22-metre-long object detected on the sea floor turned out to be aircraft debris and passenger belongings.

Muhammad Syaugi, head of Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency, told reporters on Wednesday that the search effort was battling strong currents but they remained confident the aircraft hull would be found.

The discovery of the Boeing 737-MAX jet’s main body would have been a breakthrough in solving the mystery as investigators were hoping it would lead them to flight data recorders, referred to colloquially as “black boxes”.

Pings, believed to be from the flight recorder due to their regular intervals, had been detected earlier but the strength of the currents has prevented the black box from being recovered.

Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a previous flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight on Monday.

Two passengers on the Sunday Bali-bound flight [wasn't it actually DPS-CGK? - Airbubba] interviewed on Indonesian TV recalled unsettling details such as a strange engine sound, a smell of burnt cables, and panicked passengers crying out for God to save them as the plane rapidly lost altitude.

Later in the flight, a man who was either the captain or first officer walked through the plane and returned to the cockpit with what looked like a large manual.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/trave...971637c2c2f57e