Maldives' Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid on Monday sent a message of condolence to his Indonesian counterpart, Retno L.P. Marsudi, over the tragic plane crash that killed 62 people on January 9.
Minister Shahid expressed shock and sorrow over the tragedy, and conveyed condolences on behalf of the Maldivian people and government to the bereaved families, and government of Indonesia.
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182, which was carrying 50 passengers including 10 children, and 12 crew members, crashed into the ocean around four minutes after take-off. The Boeing 737-500 plane was heading from Jakarta to Pontianak, when it lost contact 11 nautical miles north from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta.
Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency team is still continuing a search operation for those onboard, while family members of the victims gathered at a victim identification centre in Jakarta and at a crisis centre in Pontianak to await news.
Meanwhile, per Reuters, Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) surmised that the plane possibly "ruptured" when it hit the Java Sea, as the debris was not scattered widely, unlike in the case of a mid-air explosion.
While the KNKT confirmed that the locations of Flight SJ182's two black boxes had been pinpointed, the cause of the crash is yet to be identified.
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