An Indonesian plane carrying 62 people is believed to have crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from capital Jakarta.

 

The Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 passenger plane lost contact four minutes into its journey to Pontianak in West Kalimantan province, said a BBC report.

 

The plane took off from Soekarno-Hatta international airport on Saturday at 1.56pm for a 90-minute flight over the Java Sea between Jakarta and Pontianak in West Kalimantan - Indonesia's section of Borneo island.

 

There were 56 passengers - seven of whom are children and three are babies - as well as two pilots and four cabin crew. 

 

Flight tracking website Flightradar24.com said the aircraft lost more than 3,000m (10,000ft) in altitude in less than a minute.

 

Witnesses said they had seen and heard at least one explosion.

 

The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) has deployed personnel to the last known location of the airplane.

 

A number of residents of an island near where the plane disappeared told the BBC they had found objects they thought were from the plane.

 

The transport ministry said search and rescue efforts were under way.

 

The Indonesian navy has been deployed to look for the aircraft, reports say. Navy official Abdul Rasyid told Reuters news agency it had determined the plane's coordinates and ships had been deployed to the location.