JAKARTA - Search and rescue efforts are underway in waters off Karawang, West Java, to locate survivors of Lion Air flight JT610, which crashed early Monday morning (Oct 29) minutes after taking off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

Tugboats and other vessels from state-owned oil company Pertamina, which were near the crash site and first at the scene, found aircraft debris in the water, but no survivors yet.

There were 189 people on board the plane.

Local authorities confirmed that flight JT610 departed the airport near the capital Jakarta on schedule at 6.20am local time, but lost contact with air traffic controllers about 13 minutes later.

The Boeing 737 MAX, one of the latest variants of the American-built aircraft, was originally scheduled to arrive at Pangkal Pinang, in Bangka Belitung Islands province, at 7.20am.

Saat ini tim SAR Basarnas melakukan penyelaman dikoordinat 05 derajat 90' 361" S - 107 derajat 06' 618" E untuk mencari pesawat Lion Air JT 610 yang jatuh di perairan Karawang Jawa Barat. pic.twitter.com/XK0UiSKyfH — Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) October 29, 2018

Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency Basarnas chief Muhammad Syaugi said his agency was alerted to the incident at about 6.50am and immediately dispatched resources to the possible crash site.

“When we arrived at the location, we found aircraft debris, a buoy, cellphones and several objects,” said Air Marshal Syaugi at a joint press conference on Monday morning with Indonesia's national transportation safety committee KNKT. Aircraft seats were also sighted among the debris.

He added that the location of the crash site is about two nautical miles from where it lost contact with air traffic control and that the aircraft is likely to have sunk to a depth of about 30m to 35m underwater.



Items believed to be from the wreckage of the Lion Air flight JT610, recovered off the coast of Indonesia's Java island after the Boeing plane crashed into the sea. PHOTO: TWITTER/PERTAMINA



“We are there already, our vessels, our helicopter is hovering above the waters, to assist,” said AIr Marshal Syaugi.

“We are still trying to dive to search for the plane,” he said.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo said the authorities would do their best to find and rescue the victims of Monday's air crash.

"I will continue to pray that victims can be found immediately. I'm deeply concerned for the families of the victims, but we hope the victims' families will stay calm while waiting for the SAR (search and rescue) teams which are currently working hard at the scene. I also ordered the KNKT (national transportation safety committee) to immediately investigate this incident and submit the results of the investigation as quickly as possible," said Mr Joko.

CRASH TIMELINE

6.20am local time: Lion Air flight JT 610 takes off from Soekarno-Hatta airport with 189 on-board and is scheduled to arrive in Pangkal Pinang, the capital of Bangka Belitung Islands province, from Jakarta at 0720 hrs 6.22am: Captain Bhavye Suneja, who is from India, contacts air traffic control (ATC) in Jakarta to report a problem with his flight control when flying at an altitude of 1,700ft. He requests for permission to climb to 5,000 ft. Jakarta ATC gives Captain Bhavye the green light. 6.32am: Jakarta ATC loses contact with flight JT 610. 6.50am: National search and rescue agency Basarnas alerted to the incident and immediately mobilises its personnel to the possible crash site. 8am: National transportation safety committee KNKT set-ups a command centre to coordinate with Lion Air, Basarnas, AirNav Indonesia, and other relevant agencies to respond to the incident. 10am: Basarnas and KNKT confirms that flight JT 610 has crashed in the waters of Karawang regency in West Java province. Source: KNKT deputy chief Haryo Satmiko

According to the Ministry of Transportation’s directorate-general for air travel, flight JT610 had requested to return to Soekarno-Hatta Airport before it disappeared from the radar.

When asked on the cause of the crash, KNKT chief Soerjanto Tjahjono said: "We can't presume anything before finding the black box and also the recording from the (air traffic control) tower."

Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait also told reporters that he is still waiting for updates on status of the 189 people on board.

He also confirmed that according to the pilot's records, the aircraft had underwent proper maintenance and was released for flight by engineers accordingly.

He said the plane reported a technical problem during its previous flight from Denpasar to Jakarta on Sunday night, but the problem was resolved before it took off on Monday morning.

"The weather was also good, everything was clear before the incident," he added.

On a request by the pilot to return to base shortly after take-off, Mr Sirait would only say that Lion Air is still trying to verify the information.

He said that Lion Air has opened up crisis centres for family members of victims at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport and at the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport.

According to Jakarta-based Elshinta radio, a tugboat had notified the Tanjung Priok Port that it spotted a plane crashing into the water on Monday morning.

The 189 people on board the aircraft comprised the two pilots, six flight attendants and 181 passengers, including a child and two infants. Around 20 staff from Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance were also on the flight.

Lion Air has set up a crisis centre at Soekarno-Hatta Airport’s Terminal 1 to assist the family members of passengers.

A spokesman from the airline said the Boeing 737 MAX plane was manufactured this year and has been operated by Lion Air since Aug 15.

The aircraft was commanded by Captain Bhavye Suneja, with co-pilot Harvino, who like many Indonesians go by just one name. The spokesman added that Capt Bhavya has clocked more than 6,000 flight hours, while his co-pilot has more than 5,000 flight hours.

The flight was operated by Boeing 737 MAX 8 registration PK-LQP. The aircraft was delivered to Lion Air in August of this year. It is powered by two CFM LEAP-1B engines. https://t.co/Jv0z8vytv3 #JT610 pic.twitter.com/yCkR2PbMUa — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) October 29, 2018

Lion Air is Indonesia’s largest low-cost carrier, dominating more than 40 per cent of the market. It has been on an aggressive expansion plan in recent years, including putting in an order for 50 of the Boeing 737 MAX single-aisle planes.

In total, the airline has almost 300 aircraft, more than half of which are from Boeing. Last year, it served nearly 51 million passengers, six million more than in 2016.

Related Story MFA: No reports of Singaporeans on downed Lion Air flight for now

But Lion Air also has a history of accidents dating back to 2002, less than three years after it was founded by Indonesian brothers Rusdi and Kusnan Kirana.

In January 2002, a Boeing 737-200 it operated crashed on take-off at Sultan Syarif Kasim II International Airport in Pekanbaru, in Riau province.

The passengers on that flight survived, but a crash in Solo two years later, in 2004, claimed the lives of 25 people. That was the airline’s only incident with fatalities in the last 14 years.

There were also other accidents involving its aircraft, include an incident in August 2013, when a Lion Air Boeing 737-800 from Makassar to Gorontalo with 117 passengers and crew on board hit a cow while landing at Jalaluddin Airport and veered off the runway.

That same year, one of its aircraft also crash-landed in the water after it overran the runway at the Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali.

Incidentally, Lion Air was removed from the European Union’s air safety blacklist in June 2016.

The latest crash comes after the tragic December 2014 crash of AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 into the Java Sea after taking off from Surabaya. The flight to Singapore was carrying 162 people.</s>PAKISJAYA, Indonesia (Reuters) - An Indonesian aircraft with 189 people on board crashed into the sea and sank on Monday soon after taking off from the capital, Jakarta, on a flight to a tin-mining region, officials said.

Lion Air flight JT610, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, lost contact with ground officials 13 minutes after takeoff, and crashed about 15 km (9 miles) off the coast.

Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, although its safety record is patchy. If all aboard have died, the crash would be the country’s second-worst air disaster since 1997, industry experts said.

“We don’t know yet whether there are any survivors,” search and rescue agency head Muhmmad Syaugi told a news conference, adding that no distress signal had been received from the aircraft’s emergency transmitter.

“We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm.”

Items such as handphones and life vests were found in waters about 30 meters to 35 meters (98 to 115 ft) deep near where the plane, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, lost contact, he said.

“We are there already, our vessels, our helicopter is hovering above the waters, to assist,” Syaugi said. “We are trying to dive down to find the wreck.”

Ambulances were lined up at Karawang, on the coast east of Jakarta and police were preparing rubber dinghies, a Reuters reporter said. Fishing boats were being used to help search.

At least 23 government officials were on board the plane, which an air navigation spokesman said had sought to turn back just before losing contact.

Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group, told reporters the aircraft had a technical problem on a flight from the resort island of Bali to Jakarta but it had been “resolved according to procedure”.

Sirait declined to specify the nature of the issue but said none of its other aircraft of that model had the same problem. Lion had operated 11 Boeing 737 Max 8s and it had no plan to ground the rest of them, he said.

The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer’s workhorse single-aisle jet.

Privately owned Lion Air said the aircraft had been in operation since August, was airworthy, with its pilot and co-pilot together having accumulated 11,000 hours of flying time.

The head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee said he could not confirm the cause of the crash, which would have to wait until the recovery of the plane’s black boxes, as the cockpit voice recorder and data flight recorder are known.

“The plane is so modern, it transmits data from the plane, and that we will review too. But the most important is the blackbox,” said Soerjanto Tjahjono.

Safety experts say nearly all accidents are caused by a combination of factors and only rarely have a single identifiable cause.

The weather was clear, Tjahjono said.

President Joko Widodo told a news conference authorities were focusing on the search and rescue, and he called for the country’s prayers and support.

The effort to find the wreckage and retrieve the black boxes represents a major challenge for investigators in Indonesia, where an AirAsia Airbus jet crashed in the Java Sea in December 2015.

Under international rules, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will automatically assist with the inquiry into Monday’s crash, backed up by technical advisers from Boeing and U.S.-French engine maker CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran.

Boeing was deeply saddened by the loss, it said in a statement, and was ready to provide technical assistance for the investigation.

The flight took off from Jakarta around 6.20 a.m. and was due to have landed in Pangkal Pinang, capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region, at 7.20 a.m., the Flightradar 24 website showed.

Data from FlightRadar24 shows the first sign of something amiss was around two minutes into the flight, when the plane had reached 2,000 feet (610 m).

Then it descended more than 500 feet (152 m) and veered to the left before climbing again to 5,000 feet (1,524 m), where it stayed during most of the rest of the flight.

It began gaining speed in the final moments and reached 345 knots (397 mph) before data was lost when it was at 3,650 feet (1,113 m).

Its last recorded position was about 15 km (9 miles) north of the Indonesian coast, according to a Google Maps reference of the last coordinates from Flightradar24.

Indonesia’s worst air disaster was in 1997, when a Garuda Indonesia A300 crashed in the city of Medan killing 214 people.

Founded in 1999, Lion Air’s only fatal accident was in 2004, when an MD-82 crashed upon landing at Solo City, killing 25 of the 163 on board, the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network says.

In April, the airline announced a firm order to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrowbody jets with a list price of $6.24 billion. It is one of the U.S. planemaker’s largest customers globally.</s>It was a black Monday in Indonesia as a passenger plane carrying 188 people crashed into the sea off Jakarta, some minutes after take-off.

According to air tracking service Flightradar 24, the flight JT610 operated by Lion Air, lost contact with the ground 13 minutes after take-off.

The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, which can carry up to 200 passengers,.

“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the country’s search and rescue agency, said on Monday by text message, when asked about the fate of the plane.

A search and rescue effort has been launched for the plane which departed Jakarta about 6.20 a.m. on Monday and was scheduled to land at Pangkal Pinang at 7.20 a.m.

Reports received at Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta indicated the remains of the plane had been spotted.

Indonesia’s disaster agency spokesman posted video of some debris on Twitter.

A vessel traffic officer, Suyadi, told the Jakarta Post that he received a report from a tugboat that identified a downed plane at 6.45 a.m.

“At 7:15 a.m., the tugboat reported it had approached the site and the crew saw the debris of a plane,” Suyadi told the Post.

There were no reports about the passengers on board.

A tanker and cargo ship were approaching the site and a search and rescue vessel was also en route.

The accident is the first to be reported that involves the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer’s workhorse single-aisle jet.

The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017.

Boeing is aware of the airplane accident reports and is “closely monitoring” the situation, it said on social network Twitter.</s>JAKARTA - The Indonesian authorities have mounted a search and rescue operation for a Lion Air plane which crashed into the sea shortly after take-off from Jakarta on Monday (Oct 29) morning.

Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from Jakarta Airport at 6.20am local time and lost contact with air traffic controllers at 6.33am. The Boeing 737 was originally scheduled to arrive at Pangkal Pinang at 7.10am.

The plane plunged into Karawang Bay, West Java province, Mr Muhammad Syaugi, head of the national search and rescue agency, told a press briefing. The waters at the crash site are around 30m to 35m deep.

"On the sea surface, we found debris… The location is two nautical miles from where the plane lost contact," he told reporters.

The crash site is near a facility of state-owned oil company Pertamina in West Java province. A video taken from a Pertamina vessel near the crash site showed oil patches on the water surface.

Local TV footage also showed wallets and mobile phones that had been retrieved from the waters.

Officials said the plane had requested a return to base before finally disappearing from the radar.

The head of Indonesia's national transportation safety committee (KNKT) Dr Soerjanto Tjahjono told reporters that the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane that crashed entered service in August this year and had clocked only about 800 flight hours.

There are 189 passengers and crew on board the plane, including two infants, one child, two pilots and six cabin crew.

When asked on the cause of the crash, Dr Soerjanto said: "We can't presume anything before finding the blackbox and also the recording from the (air traffic control) tower."

A tugboat notified the Tanjung Priok sea port's Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) that it spotted a plane plunging into the water on Monday morning, according to Jakarta-based Elshinta radio.

In December 2014, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 carrying 162 people plunged into the Java Sea after taking off from Surabaya to Singapore.

Lion Air, a low-cost airline, has been involved in a number of incidents.

Last year one of its Boeing jets collided with a Wings Air plane as it landed at Kualanamu airport on the island of Sumatra, although no one was injured.

In May 2016, two Lion Air planes collided at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport, while a month earlier a plane operated by Batik Air -- part of the Lion Group -- clipped a TransNusa plane.

In 2013 a Lion Air jet with a rookie pilot at the controls undershot the runway and crashed into the sea in Bali, splitting the plane in two. Several people were injured in the crash, although no one was killed.

Indonesia's air travel industry is booming, with the number of domestic passengers growing significantly over the past decade, but it has acquired a reputation for poor regulation.

Last year the Indonesian air traffic controllers association revealed that the rate of take-off and landings in Jakarta allowed by state-run air navigation company AirNav was more than the airport could handle, increasing the chance of accidents.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.</s>JAKARTA - Indonesian transport minister Budi Karya has ordered local airlines Lion Air and Garuda to inspect their Boeing 737 Max aeroplanes as the authorities continue to investigate and search for survivors of Monday's Lion Air crash in which 189 people are feared dead.

"We sent a letter to Lion Air and Garuda yesterday to do their inspection. The results will be handed over to KNKT to help with the investigation," Mr Budi told reporters on Tuesday (Oct 30), using the acronym for the National Transportation Safety Committee of Indonesia.

Lion Air is believed to have eight Boeing 737 Max aircraft, while Garuda has one.

"We understand the pilot made a return to base request. There are things that need clarification. Before we analyse the crew's actions and the possibility of human error, we must first perform an analysis of the plane," Mr Budi said.

He gave his assurance that a thorough and objective investigation will be carried out.

Meanwhile, aircraft manufacturer Boeing said it is deeply saddened by the loss of Lion Air Flight JT 610. "We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of those on board," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

Boeing said it is providing technical assistance at the request and under the direction of government authorities investigating the accident.

“We do not rule out the possibility that we and Boeing will sit together to discuss the results of both our investigation and Boeing’s before we hand over our reports to KNKT,” Mr Budi said.

The search for survivors from the ill-fated Lion Air Flight JT610, which plunged into the Java Sea minutes after take-off from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport on Monday morning, continues into its second day amid fears that all 189 people on board had died from the crash.

Rescuers at the crash site off the waters of Karawang, West Java, sent 34 body bags containing human remains, including possibly that of a baby, for DNA testing on Tuesday.</s>An Indonesian Lion Air Boeing airliner carrying 189 people and flown by Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja crashed into the Java Sea on Monday minutes after taking off from here, with no sign of survivors.

The Boeing 737, JT 610, disappeared from the radar 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on the Indonesian island of Bangka.

Here are the top 10 worst air crashes in the history of Indonesia:

Mandala Airlines Flight 660 was a scheduled passenger flight on 24 July 1992 which crashed in Indonesia into a mountain on Ambon Island as it attempted to land at Pattimura Airport in a heavy thunderstorm. Pilot error and wind shear were blamed for the crash. At least 70 people died in the air crash.

On 20 May 2009, an Indonesian Air Force Lockheed L-100-30(P) Hercules which was carrying 112 people (98 passengers and 14 crew) crashed at about 6:30 local time (23:30 UTC), while flying from Jakarta to eastern Java. The crash resulted in 99 deaths, 2 of which occurred on impact when the aircraft struck at least four houses before skidding into a rice paddy, in the village of Geplak.

Adam Air Flight 574 (KI574 or DHI574) was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by Adam Air between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya and Manado that broke up in mid-air and crashed into the Makassar Strait near Polewali in Sulawesi on 1 January 2007. All 102 people on board died, making it the deadliest aviation accident involving a Boeing 737-400.

SilkAir Flight 185 was a scheduled SilkAir passenger flight operated by a Boeing 737-300 from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Singapore, that crashed into the Musi River near Palembang in southern Sumatra, on 19 December 1997, killing all 97 passengers and seven crew on board.

On April 22, 1974, Pan Am Flight 812 (PA812), operated by a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321B crashed into rough mountainous terrain while preparing for a runway 09 approach to Denpasar after a 4-hour 20-minute flight from Hong Kong. At least 107 were killed in the air accident.

The 1991 Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crash happened on 5 October 1991 when Indonesian Air Force Lockheed C-130H-30 Hercules, A-1324, crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta-Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport due to an engine fire. In the air crash, 135 were killed, including 121 airmen, 12 crew and 2 on the ground.

On 30 June 2015, a Lockheed KC-130B Hercules belonging to the Indonesian Air Force with 12 crew and 109 passengers on board, crashed near a residential neighborhood shortly after taking off from Medan, Indonesia, en route to Tanjung Pinang. All aboard were killed, along with 22 people on the ground.

Mandala Airlines Flight 91 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that originated from Polonia International Airport in Medan, Indonesia to Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. On 5 September 2005 at 10:15 WIB (UTC+7), the flight crashed into a heavily populated residential area, seconds after taking off in Medan. There were 149 fatalities.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 was a scheduled international passenger flight, operated by AirAsia Group affiliate Indonesia AirAsia, from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. On 28 December 2014, the aircraft operating the route, an Airbus A320-216, registered as PK-AXC, msn: 3648, crashed into the Java Sea during bad weather, killing all 155 passengers and seven crew on board. Two days after the crash, debris from the aircraft and human remains were found floating in the Java Sea.

On 26 September 1997, Flight 152, on final approach into Polonia International Airport, crashed into mountainous woodlands 30 miles (48 km) from Medan during low visibility caused by the 1997 Southeast Asian haze. All 234 passengers and crew were killed. The crash site was in a ravine near the village of Buah Nabar in the Sibolangit district south of Medan. With 234 fatalities, it is the deadliest airline disaster in Indonesia's history.</s>Top cyclist Andrea Manfredi was among the 189 passengers killed instantly when their plane crashed into the sea off the coast of Indonesia.

The Italian rider, 26, was on board Lion Air's flight JT-610, which was heading to Pangkal Pinang, an island north of the capital, Jakarta, when it lost contact with air control about 6.33am local time - just 13 minutes after take-off.

He had posted on Instagram the same morning, uploading images of his bike with the caption: 'I could change my life but not my passion.'

Manfredi left Pisa's Galileo Galilei airport on October 17, landing in Hong Kong on his way to Jakarta, where the ill-fated jet took off from.

Shortly before the disaster, the plane's pilot, Indian national Bhavye Suneja, had reported 'technical difficulties' and, minutes after take-off, asked to return to the airport, an official said. Traffic control allowed the return, but the aircraft then vanished from radar and plunged 5,000ft into the sea.

The flight, which crashed shortly after take-off, had suffered instrument problems the day before, according to a technical log obtained by the BBC.

The technical log from the plane's previous flight from Bali to Jakarta suggests the Indonesian flight had an 'unreliable' airspeed reading and the captain and first officer had conflicting altitude readings the day before the crash.

This morning Lion Air's president said the Boeing 737 MAX 8, which went into service just months ago, had gone in for repairs ahead of its final flight.

'It got repaired in Denpasar (in Bali) and then it was flown to Jakarta,' Edward Sirait told AFP. 'Engineers in Jakarta received notes and did another repair before it took off' on Monday. That's the normal procedure for any plane.'

Websites that display flight data showed the plane speeding up as it suddenly lost altitude in the minutes before it disappeared.

Manfredi's former cycling team Bardiani-CSF paid tribute to him in a statement, which read: 'The memory of a serious guy and in love with his sport, will remain indelible in the minds of all those who, in these years, have had the good fortune to know him.'

Manfredi's best result was at the Giro della Valle d'Aosta in 2012, where he came in third for the second stage of the race.

He quit professional cycling in 2015 to set up his own fabric firm Sportek, but continued amateur cycling.

Photos show debris, including what appeared to be an emergency slide, and personal belongings picked up from the water's surface by ships that reached the crash area in the Java Sea. Separate images show heart-broken relatives waiting for news at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta International airport and at the terminal in Pangkal Pinang.

One of the passengers was 22-year-old Deryl Fida Febrianto, who was married just two weeks ago and was on his way to Pangkal Pinang to work on a cruise ship.

His wife, Lutfinani Eka Putri, 23, said that her husband messaged her from the aircraft at 6.12am, sending her a photo from the plane, and at 6.15am he stopped replying to her messages. They had grown up together, she told reporters, showing a picture of the smiling couple on their wedding day.

'When I saw the news, I matched the flight number with the ticket photo Deryl had sent,' she said. 'I immediately started crying.'

Rescuers said today that all 189 passenger and crew were 'likely' and that human remains had been found.

'My prediction is that nobody survived because the victims that we found, their bodies were no longer intact and it's been hours so it is likely 189 people have died,' agency operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters.

Pilot Suneja, originally from New Delhi, had worked for Lion Air since March 2011 and had logged 11,000 flying hours.

After receiving friends and relatives who rushed to their New Delhi home upon hearing news of the crash, the parents of the pilot Suneja set off for the Indonesian capital.

'Please pray for us,' Suneja's sobbing mother said as she got into a car. A family friend, Anil Gupta, said Suneja's father was stunned and couldn't talk, and his sister and mother had not come out of their rooms.

The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet.

Pictures and video shared online by the head of Indonesia's disaster relief agency show debris and oil floating on the water following the crash, of which there are, so far, no known survivors.

'It's correct that an RTB (return to base) was requested and had been approved but we're still trying to figure out the reason,' Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia's transport safety committee, told reporters, referring to the pilot's request.

'We hope the black box is not far from the main wreckage so it can be found soon,' he said, referring to the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

Pope Francis conveyed his condolences to those affected today with The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, saying in a telegram to that the pontiff 'offers the assurance of his prayers for all who have died and for those who mourn their loss'.

Relatives were pictured crying at the Pangpal Pinang airport as they awaited news on their loved ones and family members were also pictured arriving at the agency's headquarters in Jakarta.

Feni, who uses a single name, said her soon-to-be-married sister was on the flight, planning to meet relatives in Pangkal Pinang, a jumping off point for beach-and-sun seeking tourists on nearby Belitung island.

'We are here to find any information about my younger sister, her fiance, her in-law to be and a friend of them,' said Feni.

'We don't have any information,' she said, as her father wiped tears from reddened eyes. 'No one provided us with any information that we need. 'We're confused. We hope our family is still alive,' she said.

On board were 178 adults, one child, two babies, two pilots and five flight attendants. There were also 20 staff from the Indonesian Ministry for Finance on board, and 23 government officials in total according to Reuters. AN Italian national was also among those on board.

Sony Setiawan has revealed he is lucky to be alive after traffic jams made him late for a flight that crashed in to the sea off Indonesia.He was due to be among the 189 people on board Lion Air flight JT 610 when it took off early from the capital Jakarta on Monday morning.

But he was held up on his commute to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and never boarded the Boeing-737.

The head of search and rescue agency Basarnas told reporters body parts had been seen floating in the ocean near the crash site.

'We don't know yet whether there are any survivors,' Syaugi told a news conference. 'We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm.'

He later said body parts had been seen floating near Tanjung Karawang, where the plane is believed to have gone down, about 34 nautical miles north-west of Jakarta, but it was too soon to say how many had died.

About 150 people have joined the rescue mission, including 30 divers, as authorities search desperately for survivors.

The air tracking service FlightRadar 24 tracked the plane, showing it looping south on take-off and then heading north before the flight path ended abruptly over the Java Sea, not far from the coast.

A tug boat leaving Jakarta's port saw the plane falling into the water, which is reported to be about 30-35m deep.

The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 which can carry as many as 210 passengers.

In a statement Boeing said it was 'deeply saddened by the loss of Flight JT 610' and expressed sympathy for the loved ones of those on board.

A statement issued by Indonesia's search and rescue agency said the plane's Emergency Local Transmitter beacon did not emit a distress signal as it fell from the sky - despite it being tested and declared fully functional until August 2019.

'It has been confirmed that it has crashed,' Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the agency, said by text message, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.

LionAir's CEO Edward Sirait said a technical problem had been raised about the plane before it took off, but added the plane was cleared by engineers before take-off on Monday morning.

He said the airline owned 11 of the 737 Max 8 models and that none had had any issues up until Monday.

He told reporters: 'This plane previously flew from Denpasar to Cengkareng (Jakarta). There was a report of a technical issue which had been resolved according to procedure.'

Preliminary flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft climbed to around 5,000 feet (1,524 m) before losing, and then regaining, height, before finally falling towards the sea.

It was last recorded at 3,650 feet (1,113 m) and its speed had risen to 345 knots, according to raw data captured by the respected tracking website, which could not immediately be confirmed.

Its last recorded position was about 9 miles north of the Indonesian coastline, according to a Google Maps reference of the last coordinates reported by Flightradar24. It lost contact with air control at about 6.33am local time (10.33am AEDT, 11.33pm BST).

The accident is the first to be reported that involves the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017.

Lion Air's Malaysian subsidiary, Malindo Air, received the very first global delivery.

Dr Soerjanto Tjahjono, who heads up Indonesia's national transportation safety committee, told reporters the doomed plane had only clocked about 800 flight hours since beginning service in August.

Meanwhile, Australia's foreign affairs ministry says Australian government officials and contractors 'have been instructed not to fly on Lion Air or their subsidiary airlines' following the crash. The statement posted on the ministry's website said the decision will be reviewed when the findings of the crash investigation are clear.

Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.

In 2013, one of its Boeing 737-800 jets missed the runway while landing on the resort island of Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities among the 108 people on board.

Indonesia has a horror track record on air safety and only recently the European Union removed all Indonesia airlines from its aviation safety blacklist.

Three major Indonesia airlines, including Lion, were upgraded to the top safety tier in June after passing a key international audit.

There have been more than 40 air accidents resulting in deaths in Indonesia since 2001.

A rapid expansion of air travel in recent years has seen an explosion of low-cost airlines operating in the country.</s>The first pictures have emerged of passengers on board a doomed jet that crashed into the sea off Indonesia 'killing all 189 on board'.

Lion Air's flight JT-610 was heading to Pangkal Pinang, an island north of the capital, Jakarta, when it lost contact with air control about 6.33am local time - just 13 minutes after take-off.

Shortly before the disaster, the plane's pilot, Indian national Bhavye Suneja, had reported 'technical difficulties' and, minutes after take-off, asked to return to the airport, an official said. Traffic control allowed the return, but the aircraft then vanished from radar and plunged 5,000ft into the sea.

The flight, which crashed shortly after take-off, had suffered instrument problems the day before, according to a technical log obtained by the BBC.

The technical log from the plane's previous flight from Bali to Jakarta suggests the Indonesian flight had an 'unreliable' airspeed reading and the captain and first officer had conflicting altitude readings the day before the crash.

This morning Lion Air's president said the Boeing 737 MAX 8, which went into service just months ago, had gone in for repairs ahead of its final flight.

'It got repaired in Denpasar (in Bali) and then it was flown to Jakarta,' Edward Sirait told AFP. 'Engineers in Jakarta received notes and did another repair before it took off' on Monday. That's the normal procedure for any plane.'

Websites that display flight data showed the plane speeding up as it suddenly lost altitude in the minutes before it disappeared.

Photos show debris, including what appeared to be an emergency slide, and personal belongings picked up from the water's surface by ships that reached the crash area in the Java Sea. Separate images show heart-broken relatives waiting for news at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta International airport and at the terminal in Pangkal Pinang.

One of the passengers was 22-year-old Deryl Fida Febrianto, who was married just two weeks ago and was on his way to Pangkal Pinang to work on a cruise ship.

His wife, Lutfinani Eka Putri, 23, said that her husband messaged her from the aircraft at 6.12am, sending her a photo from the plane, and at 6.15am he stopped replying to her messages. They had grown up together, she told reporters, showing a picture of the smiling couple on their wedding day.

'When I saw the news, I matched the flight number with the ticket photo Deryl had sent,' she said. 'I immediately started crying.'

Rescuers said today that all 189 passenger and crew were 'likely' and that human remains had been found.

'My prediction is that nobody survived because the victims that we found, their bodies were no longer intact and it's been hours so it is likely 189 people have died,' agency operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters.

Pilot Suneja, originally from New Delhi, had worked for Lion Air since March 2011 and had logged 11,000 flying hours.

After receiving friends and relatives who rushed to their New Delhi home upon hearing news of the crash, the parents of the pilot Suneja set off for the Indonesian capital.

'Please pray for us,' Suneja's sobbing mother said as she got into a car. A family friend, Anil Gupta, said Suneja's father was stunned and couldn't talk, and his sister and mother had not come out of their rooms.

The accident is the first to be reported involving the widely sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet.

Pictures and video shared online by the head of Indonesia's disaster relief agency show debris and oil floating on the water following the crash, of which there are, so far, no known survivors.

'It's correct that an RTB (return to base) was requested and had been approved but we're still trying to figure out the reason,' Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia's transport safety committee, told reporters, referring to the pilot's request.

'We hope the black box is not far from the main wreckage so it can be found soon,' he said, referring to the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

Pope Francis conveyed his condolences to those affected today with The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, saying in a telegram to that the pontiff 'offers the assurance of his prayers for all who have died and for those who mourn their loss'.

Relatives were pictured crying at the Pangpal Pinang airport as they awaited news on their loved ones and family members were also pictured arriving at the agency's headquarters in Jakarta.

Feni, who uses a single name, said her soon-to-be-married sister was on the flight, planning to meet relatives in Pangkal Pinang, a jumping off point for beach-and-sun seeking tourists on nearby Belitung island.

'We are here to find any information about my younger sister, her fiance, her in-law to be and a friend of them,' said Feni.

'We don't have any information,' she said, as her father wiped tears from reddened eyes. 'No one provided us with any information that we need. 'We're confused. We hope our family is still alive,' she said.

On board were 178 adults, one child, two babies, two pilots and five flight attendants. There were also 20 staff from the Indonesian Ministry for Finance on board, and 23 government officials in total according to Reuters. AN Italian national was also among those on board.

Sony Setiawan has revealed he is lucky to be alive after traffic jams made him late for a flight that crashed in to the sea off Indonesia.He was due to be among the 189 people on board Lion Air flight JT 610 when it took off early from the capital Jakarta on Monday morning.

But he was held up on his commute to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and never boarded the Boeing-737.

The head of search and rescue agency Basarnas told reporters body parts had been seen floating in the ocean near the crash site.

'We don't know yet whether there are any survivors,' Syaugi told a news conference. 'We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm.'

Indonesia's deadliest air crashes: How Lion Air disaster was the latest to rock Indonesia The crash of a brand new Lion Air Boeing-737 MAX into the sea on Monday, just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, is the latest in a series of air accidents to rock the archipelago. Indonesian relies heavily on air transport to connect its thousands of islands but has suffered a string of deadly plane crashes in recent years. The aviation sector is expanding fast as the economy booms but there are concerns airlines are struggling to find enough well-trained personnel to keep up with the rapid growth. Once banned from European airspace over safety fears, the EU removed all Indonesian airlines from its safety blacklist in 2018 following improvements. Here are the worst aviation disasters in the nation's history: Northern Sumatra - The worst disaster in Indonesia's aviation history left 234 dead in 1997. An Airbus A-300B4 operated by national carrier Garuda Indonesia crashed in a smog-shrouded ravine in North Sumatra, just short of Medan's airport. Java Sea - In 2014, an AirAsia plane plunged into the Java Sea during stormy weather, killing 162 people. The Malaysian airline was flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. The worst disaster in Indonesia's aviation history left 234 dead in 1997. An Airbus A-300B4 operated by national carrier Garuda Indonesia crashed in a smog-shrouded ravine in North Sumatra, just short of Medan's airport Medan disaster - A Mandala Airlines domestic flight crashed shortly after take-off in 2005 into a densely populated suburb in Medan, a city of two million on the island of Sumatra, killing at least 150 including passengers, crew and people on the ground. Military families - In June 2015 an Indonesian military plane crashed shortly after takeoff, also coming down in a residential area in Medan, killing around 122 people on board, many of them servicemen and women and their families. Around 20 people were also killed on the ground and several housing blocks torn apart. The Armed Forces has been beleaguered by a string of fatal accidents in recent years. Air Force fire - In 1991, an Air Force plane crashed in East Jakarta minutes after take off when an engine caught fire, killing 135 people according to reports. Those who died included 121 airmen, 12 crew and two people on the ground. One passenger survived. River crash - In 1997, a Silk Air flight crashed into a river near the Indonesian city of Palembang while on its way to Singapore from Jakarta. All 104 passengers and crew were killed in what was investigated as a possible pilot murder-suicide. New Year's Day crash - An Adam Air plane plunged into the sea off Sulawesi island on New Year's Day 2007, killing all 102 people on board. The airline was later banned from flying. Indonesian authorities said the pilots lost control after becoming preoccupied with malfunctioning navigational equipment.

He later said body parts had been seen floating near Tanjung Karawang, where the plane is believed to have gone down, about 34 nautical miles north-west of Jakarta, but it was too soon to say how many had died.

About 150 people have joined the rescue mission, including 30 divers, as authorities search desperately for survivors.

The air tracking service FlightRadar 24 tracked the plane, showing it looping south on take-off and then heading north before the flight path ended abruptly over the Java Sea, not far from the coast.

A tug boat leaving Jakarta's port saw the plane falling into the water, which is reported to be about 30-35m deep.

The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 which can carry as many as 210 passengers.

In a statement Boeing said it was 'deeply saddened by the loss of Flight JT 610' and expressed sympathy for the loved ones of those on board.

A statement issued by Indonesia's search and rescue agency said the plane's Emergency Local Transmitter beacon did not emit a distress signal as it fell from the sky - despite it being tested and declared fully functional until August 2019.

'It has been confirmed that it has crashed,' Yusuf Latif, a spokesman for the agency, said by text message, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane.

LionAir's CEO Edward Sirait said a technical problem had been raised about the plane before it took off, but added the plane was cleared by engineers before take-off on Monday morning.

He said the airline owned 11 of the 737 Max 8 models and that none had had any issues up until Monday.

He told reporters: 'This plane previously flew from Denpasar to Cengkareng (Jakarta). There was a report of a technical issue which had been resolved according to procedure.'

Preliminary flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft climbed to around 5,000 feet (1,524 m) before losing, and then regaining, height, before finally falling towards the sea.

It was last recorded at 3,650 feet (1,113 m) and its speed had risen to 345 knots, according to raw data captured by the respected tracking website, which could not immediately be confirmed.

Its last recorded position was about 9 miles north of the Indonesian coastline, according to a Google Maps reference of the last coordinates reported by Flightradar24. It lost contact with air control at about 6.33am local time (10.33am AEDT, 11.33pm BST).

The accident is the first to be reported that involves the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer's workhorse single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017.

Lion Air's Malaysian subsidiary, Malindo Air, received the very first global delivery.

Dr Soerjanto Tjahjono, who heads up Indonesia's national transportation safety committee, told reporters the doomed plane had only clocked about 800 flight hours since beginning service in August.

Meanwhile, Australia's foreign affairs ministry says Australian government officials and contractors 'have been instructed not to fly on Lion Air or their subsidiary airlines' following the crash. The statement posted on the ministry's website said the decision will be reviewed when the findings of the crash investigation are clear.

Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.

In 2013, one of its Boeing 737-800 jets missed the runway while landing on the resort island of Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities among the 108 people on board.

Indonesia has a horror track record on air safety and only recently the European Union removed all Indonesia airlines from its aviation safety blacklist.

Three major Indonesia airlines, including Lion, were upgraded to the top safety tier in June after passing a key international audit.

There have been more than 40 air accidents resulting in deaths in Indonesia since 2001.

A rapid expansion of air travel in recent years has seen an explosion of low-cost airlines operating in the country.</s>(CNN) — An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 189 people, including one child and two infants, crashed into the sea close to the capital Jakarta, 13 minutes after takeoff.

The Lion Air flight JT 610 disappeared from radar during a short flight from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang on the Indonesian island of Bangka on Monday morning, according to Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (SAR). It was carrying 181 passengers, as well as six crew members and two pilots.

The flight made a request to air traffic control to return to base about 12 miles out from takeoff, but did not indicate there was any emergency, Yohanes Sirait, spokesman for AirNav Indonesia, the agency that oversees air traffic navigation, told CNN.

The spokesman added that the aircraft would have been given priority landing upon such request, but that air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane shortly after. The plane had not turned back, according to the radar.

The plane, a new Boeing 737 MAX 8, had reported problems the night before on a flight from Denpasar to Jakarta Air Lion’s CEO Edward Sirait told local media TV1 in an interview.

Sirait said engineers had checked and repaired the problem and reported that the plane was ready to fly. He added that Lion Air was preparing two aircraft to fly victims’ family members from Pangkal Pinang to Jakarta.

The captain of the plane, Bhavye Suneja, an Indian national, had more than 6,000 flight hours, and his copilot, named Harvino, more than 5,000, according to a statement posted by Lion Air.

The plane took off from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Greater Jakarta at 6.21 a.m. local time, and had been due to land at around 7:30 a.m. in Pangkal Pinan, the largest city on the Indonesian island of Bangka.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said there were 20 ministry officials on board, who were returning to their posts in Pangkal Pinang after spending the weekend with their families in Jakarta for a public holiday.

Debris, life vests and a cellphone have been discovered in the water two nautical miles from the coordinates given as the crash site, SAR officials said. The fuselage has not yet been located.

Boats, a helicopter and 250 rescuers, including divers, were working at the crash site, some 34 nautical miles northeast of the coast near Jakarta in the Java Sea. The frogmen are searching in water up to 35 meters (114 feet) deep.

Images have been released by Indonesia Disaster Mitigation Agency showing officials examining what appears to be debris from the plane. Video shows an oil slick at the presumed site of the crash.

Authorities said they are still trying to locate the Emergency Locator Transmitter which is currently not transmitting.

Lion Air’s President Edward Sirait said the plane was “airworthy” and that the pilot had carried out all pre-flight inspections according to procedure. Speaking to reporters at Lion Air’s headquarters in Jakarta, Sirait said the pilots had passed mandatory drug screening.

‘Everything is on the table’

Former accident investigator Alan Diehl told CNN it looks like the accident occurred after a “sudden departure from controlled flight.”

“Air safety investigators will be looking at four broad categories — mechanical, human, weather and criminal. It appears now that weather was not a factor but other than that, everything is on the table.

“Clearly if you’re having an emergency you have to focus on troubleshooting first of all, and solving the problem, so you probably don’t have a lot of time to talk to the controllers. The fact that they had enough time to tell them that they wanted to return, that is significant.

“The fragmented floating debris suggests that there’s probably not going to be a rescue effort but they should certainly be able to recover the black boxes fairly expeditiously.”

The aircraft was seen last on the radar at 6.22 a.m. at 2,500 to 3,000 feet, Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of the National Transport Safety Committee (NTSC) said.

A spokesman for the low-cost carrier confirmed to CNN affiliate CNN Indonesia that it had lost contact with the flight soon after take-off. The flight was last recorded in the Thousand Islands regency, an archipelago north of Jakarta.

Search teams are working on the assumption that the plane has sunk and were expected to use equipment to try to detect an underwater locator beacon.

Lion Air acquired the Boeing 737 MAX 8 in August 2018 and it had only flown 800 hours, Tjahjono said.

Boeing, the manufacturer of the aircraft, released a statement saying the company was “deeply saddened” by the loss of flight JT 610.

“We express our concern for those on board, and extend heartfelt sympathies to their families and loved ones,” the statement said.

The 737 MAX 8 is one of the latest versions of a jet that was introduced in 1967. More than 10,000 737s have been produced, making it the best-selling jetliner of all time.

The MAX versions of the 737s are touted for their LEAP jet engines which Boeing says “redefine the future of efficient and environmentally friendly air travel.”

In its statement, Boeing said it was ready to provide technical assistance to accident investigators, and that all questions about the incident should be directed to Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC).

According to the Aviation Safety Network, the airline was added to the European Union’s blacklist of banned carriers in July 2007, and removed from the list in June 2016.</s>This Boeing 737 Max 8, painted in the colors of customer Southwest Airlines, was celebrated as the 10,000th 737 to roll off the assembly line on Tuesday, March 13, 2018.

Southwest Airlines and American Airlines operate the same new Boeing 737 involved in the fatal Lion Air crash in Indonesia.

Southwest Airlines was the first airline in North America to offer scheduled service on the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, with its first flight from Dallas to Houston in October 2017.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly praised the plane's fuel efficiency and quieter engines when the service was launched.

"The Max 8 is the future of the Southwest fleet,'' he said at the time.

Southwest had 23 175-seat Max 8s in its fleet of 742 aircraft as of Sept. 30, and has orders for more.

Southwest on Monday issued this statement on the crash of Lion Air Flight JT 610 from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang: "The entire Southwest family extends our Southwest heart to Lion Air and offers our deepest condolences to each of the families and loved ones affected by the tragic accident in Indonesia. We are in touch with Boeing and will await the findings from this tragic event.''

American Airlines has 15 Boeing 737 Max 8s in its fleet. It added the plane to its fleet in November 2017. Spokesman Ross Feinstein said the airline will monitor the investigation through Boeing and crash investigators.

Boeing says the 737 Max is the fastest selling plane in its history, with nearly 4,700 orders from more than 100 customers worldwide.

The company issued this statement: "The Boeing Company is deeply saddened by the loss of Flight JT 610. We express our concern for those on board, and extend heartfelt sympathies to their families and loved ones. Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance to the accident investigation. In accordance with international protocol, all inquiries about aviation accident investigations must be directed to Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC).

United Airlines doesn't operate the Max 8 but launched flights with the Boeing 737 Max 9 in June from its hub at Houston George Bush International Airport.
A Boeing 737, en route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang, crashes into the ocean near Karawang, Indonesia, killing all one hundred eighty-one passengers and eight crew.