People Who Flew in Lion Air Jet That Crashed the Night Before Described Ride as ‘Roller Coaster’

People who flew in the same Lion Air plane that crashed the night before the crash said the ride was like a roller coaster.

Lion Air Flight JT610 crashed into the Java Sea on Oct. 29 with 189 people on board. Indonesian officials said no survivors are expected.

The same plane flew the night before and passengers who rode from Bali to Jakarta that night described a rough ride.

Alon Soetanto, one of the passengers, told Indonesian news station TVOne that the plane dropped suddenly multiple times in the first few minutes of its flight.

“About three to eight minutes after it took off, I felt like the plane was losing power and unable to rise. That happened several times during the flight,” he said, reported SBS.

“We felt like in a roller coaster. Some passengers began to panic and vomit.”

Indonesian TV presenter Conchita Caroline, who also rode on Sunday’s flight, said boarding was delayed for more than an hour after a technical problem cropped up.

She said once passengers got on board, they were trapped in the cabin without air conditioning for at least 30 minutes while mechanics checked the plane.

A forensic investigator looks through the remains of Lion Air flight JT610 at the Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Oct. 29, 2018. Ed Wray/Getty Images

She said some children on board vomited from the heat while staff members finally let them off and told them to re-board after about 30 minutes on the tarmac.

Once it finally got into the air, the plane flew erratically and its airspeed readings were unreliable.

At one point, it dropped 875 feet over 27 seconds.

Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait said that the plane did suffer a technical problem on Sunday but claimed that it was fixed. He said it was checked again by mechanics before it took off on Monday.

Relatives of passengers of Lion Air flight JT610 that crashed into the sea, cry at Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang, Indonesia, on Oct. 29, 2018. Antara Foto/Elza Elvia via Reuters

Crash

The flight crashed into the Java Sea after the pilot had asked to return to the airport in Jakarta it had departed from.

Divers were dispatched to the sea on Oct. 3,1 to try to find the black box and other crucial wreckage that will help in the investigation.

“We strongly believe that we have found a part of the fuselage of JT610,” Hadi Tjahjanto told broadcaster TV One.

Two days prior, divers found debris from the flight but not the black box.

From NTD.tv