By now you've heard about the lost plane. This is a little bit more information than what you'll find on the local news.
Lystseva Marina, a Russian photojournalist who was a member of the world tour of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 - 6 countries in 12 days - was not on the fatal flight. She did document the worldwide trip starting in Russian, and ending with the Superjet's final takeoff in Indonesia. You should check out her blog - in Russian - for all of the details.
Lystseva Marina, a Russian photojournalist who was a member of the world tour of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 - 6 countries in 12 days - was not on the fatal flight. She did document the worldwide trip starting in Russian, and ending with the Superjet's final takeoff in Indonesia. You should check out her blog - in Russian - for all of the details.
One of the many photos that Lystseva had taken, includes this one of several flight attendants. Nine of them were apparently on the flight that crashed.
Seeing the faces of those who may have perished, removes any abstraction of this tragedy.
Also with her was Sergey Dolya, another photojournalist. Both Lytseva and Sergey are using their Twitter accounts, in Jakarta, to provide updates.
Here's Sergey, on one of the planes that were used, on a flight prior to the one that ended in the deadly crash.
An image of the crash site taken by rescuers, has been released through local Jakarta television, showing a steep hillside covered in debris.
The Jakarta news has also reproduced the last known radar contact and the location of the crash - Mt. Salak - with Google Earth.
Following a search of the coordinates that were provided and based off the map from Jakarta news, I've recreated that Google Earth map, but with a clearer view of how the flight may have ended up -- something that isn't so obvious if you look at the map provided by the news.
Reports say that the plane was at 10,000 feet, and at the last point of radar contact, had requested to drop down to 6000 feet. The crash location is at about 5200 feet. If you follow the Google Earth map, to turn and end up where it did, it's quite plausible that the plane turned directly into a nearby peak at 7200 feet and clipped its left wing.
It's all just theory, but one can imagine that, in the middle of heavy rains with low clouds (as was the case at the time), the pilots could not visually see the mountain peak. Having clipped the mountain's ridge, it may have lost control, losing its fight to stay aloft.
Again, all conjecture, but quite plausible.
Following a search of the coordinates that were provided and based off the map from Jakarta news, I've recreated that Google Earth map, but with a clearer view of how the flight may have ended up -- something that isn't so obvious if you look at the map provided by the news.
Update: Looks like that photo making the rounds is not of the Jakarta plane crash, but that of the Islamabad crash from two years ago -- you can compare here. I had my doubts earlier, because of the way the mountains in the background did not match up to the pinpointed site in Mt. Salak and how clean the site was, with no visible signs of being soaked from rain, but I deferred to the widespread usage of it, from various sites.
Update 2: Nope...that photo of the crash site IS correct; the crash coordinates were updated, and now the background hills in the photo fit the crash site. It does not appear that the 7200 foot mountain peak had anything to do with the crash; the crash occurred very close to the last radar point - see Google Maps image, updated with new coordinates below:
Update 3: Final, final, final map of the crash. Mt. Salak's peak remains part of the picture.
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