The Boeing 737-500 was en route from Jakarta to the city of Pontianak, on the Indonesian side of Borneo, when it lost contact at 14:40 local time (02:40 ET), 11 nautical miles north of Jakarta’s Soekarno . Hatta International Airport.
According to the Indonesian Minister of Transport, there were 50 passengers – 43 adults and 7 children – on board, as well as 12 crew members.
On Sunday, family members gathered at a victim identification center in Jakarta and at a crisis center in Pontianak, where they waited for any news from their loved ones.
Here’s what we know so far about the victims.
Agus Minarni and Muhammad Nur Kholifatul Amin
Agus Minarni and Muhammad Nur Kholifatul Amin traveled from their home in Mempawah, in the Indonesian Borneo, to Jakarta, in Java, to attend the funeral of Amin’s father – which took place in Ponorogo, in the east of Java.
While in Ponorogo, they could also spend time with one of their sons attending a boarding school there.
When the couple returned to Jakarta, Minarni’s brother Yudiansyah Yunus asked her for help securing a place at a boarding school for one of his sons.
That was the last time they would be in contact, Yunus told CNN.
Minarni and her husband would fly home on January 5 with another airline – Nam Air.
But when they arrived at the airport on Tuesday, they were told they would have to take a coronavirus PCR test to board the flight – a process that would delay them from flying for another two days.
After the couple got the result of their test, they were able to book their flight home – but this time it would be at another airline, Sriwijaya Air.
Yunus says the loss of his sister has left a big hole in the family and that he will miss her terribly.
She was a friendly person, he said, adding that she had always helped him and his younger sister in many ways. He added that she was a particularly caring person and treated her aunts and uncles with kindness.
Yunus said he would take care of the couple’s teenage children, who are now orphans.
It is essential that ‘all those involved, the airline and the government take this investigation seriously’, Yunus said.
He added that he hoped the Indonesian authorities would do their best “to find their remains at least in whatever form” so that he could “bury his sister properly, like those who have normally died.”
“That’s all I hope,” he said.
A family of five in transit
A family of five from Bangka Island – an island east of Sumatra – is missing and feared dead, according to the family’s aunt, who spoke to CNN.
The family issued a statement on Saturday saying that 26-year-old Rizki Wahyudi, his 26-year-old wife, Indah Halimah Putri, and their 7-month-old son were on the run, which crashed.
Wahyudi’s mother and cousin were also on the run.
Wahyudi has worked for the Indonesian Forestry Commission in Ketapang, West Kalimantan – a province on the Indonesian side of Borneo for the past three years.
The family of five was with other family members in the Bangka Islands and returned to Western Kalimantan via Jakarta.
On Sunday, two of Wahyudi’s uncles in Bangka submitted their DNA to aid the identification process.
A pregnant mother and her family visiting family in Jakarta
Ratih Windania, who was four months pregnant, visited family members in Jakarta with her 2-year-old daughter, Yumna. 8-year-old nephew, Athar Rizki Riawan; uncle Tony Islmail and Aunt Rachmawati, according to Riawan’s father, Iwan.
In a story posted on her Instagram account before leaving Jakarta Airport on Saturday, she says goodbye to family members living in Jakarta.
Windania also posted a cheerful photo of herself and her smiling daughter and cousin sitting in the plane and sitting before takeoff.
Father and businessman Yohanes Suherdi (30)
Yohanes Suherdi was in Jakarta on a business trip and was looking forward to returning to his family in Ngarak, a town a few hours from Pontianak Airport.
His wife, Susilawati Bungahilaria, 32, told CNN she hoped Suherdi would be found safe and that the family could be reunited soon. The couple has a five-year-old son, Rian Gusti Rafael.
Bungahilaria said that she spoke to her husband shortly before the start-up, who she described as a ‘very good and sociable person’.
“His last message to me was not to forget to take our son to the doctor because he has a fever,” she said.
Sobbing, she said her son kept asking when his father was coming home.
Bungahilaria and Suherdi’s father traveled to a crisis center in Pontianak on Sunday, where they submitted physical items that could help with the identification process, including the father’s DNA.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated the number of passengers on the flight. There were 50 passengers and 12 crew members.