"I can't live without her, I love her," he said through tears. "The last thing I said to her, was 'be careful'. I always worry about her when she goes away. When I saw on TV that the plane had crashed, my whole body went weak."<doc-sep>Family members of the crashed Indonesian Lion Air JT-610 react at Pangkal Pinang airport, in Bangka Belitung province on October 29, 2018. - An Indonesian Lion Air plane carrying 188 passengers and crew crashed into the sea on October 29, 2018, officials said, moments after it had asked to be allowed to return to Jakarta. (Photo by HADI SUTRISNO / AFP) (Photo credit should read HADI SUTRISNO/AFP/Getty Images) No answers on cause of Lion Air plane crash A wallet belonging to a victim of the Lion Air passenger jet that crashed is seen in the waters of Ujung Karawang, West Java, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. A Lion Air flight crashed into the sea just minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Monday in a blow to the country's aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and U.S. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim) Rescue team members arrange the wreckage, showing part of the logo of Lion Air flight JT610, that crashed into the sea, at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, October 29, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer Debris from the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 floats at sea in the waters north of Karawang, West Java province, on October 29, 2018. - All 189 passengers and crew aboard a crashed Indonesian Lion Air jet were "likely" killed in the accident, the search and rescue agency said on October 29, as it announced it had found human remains. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP) (Photo credit should read ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — A day after Indonesian Lion Air flight 610 crashed into the sea minutes after takeoff from the capital Jakarta, questions are being asked as to what caused the new Boeing jet to suddenly lose altitude, killing all 189 people on board. Divers and rescue teams were working Tuesday to bring passenger remains out of the water, as investigators examined fragments of debris scattered over a large expanse of sea. The aircraft’s fuselage and flight data recorders are yet to be recovered, which should provide more evidence as to what caused the flight to crash about 13 minutes after taking off on a routine flight expected to take just over one hour. Indonesian President Joko Widodo joined search teams at Tanjung Priok port Tuesday, where remains and debris recovered from the crash site have been unloaded. Ivan Watson/CNN Indonesian President Joko Widodo inspects debris recovered from the Lion Air flight 610 crash site on October 30, 2018. What we know Plane went down at around 6:30 am local time Monday, en route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang Indonesian authorities believe all 189 people on board were killed So-called “black box” flight recorder has yet to be found Flight crew reported an issue with the plane the night before the flight, repairs were carried out Police said late Monday that 24 body bags had been transferred from the crash to a local hospital for post mortem. DNA samples have been taken from 132 family members of passengers on board to help with identification, but the Jakarta police commissioner warned this could be difficult, and each body bag so far transferred could contain the remains of more than one person. At a press conference Tuesday, Muhammad Syaugi of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency said the identification process was proceeding as quickly as possible, but warned it was unlikely the remains of all passengers would be found. Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images AsiaPac/Getty Images Personal items from Lion Air flight 610 seen as Search and Rescue personnel examine recovered material at the Tanjung Priok port on October 30, 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Agency staff are going through personal items recovered from the crash site, including passports, wallets and IDs. Images show a child’s bright red Hello Kitty money pouch among items retrieved from the sea. More remains and debris were unloaded at the Tanjung Priok port late Tuesday afternoon local time, where Indonesia’s Transport Minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, joined search teams in examining the material. Jo Shelley/CNN Search teams examine debris pulled from the sea near the crash site of Lion Air flight 610. One family member, 14-year-old Keshia Aurelia, was in high school when she heard the news her mother Fifi Hajanto had been on the plane when it went down. “We cried a lot in (the crisis center) while we were waiting for the authorities,” she told CNN. “All of the families were crying. I’m not the only one suffering so I have to be strong.” “My mom was a very kind person,” Aurelia added. “I don’t understand why (this happened).” Keshia Aurelia Fifi Hajanto (right), 42, was on board Lion Air flight 610 when it went down, her daughter Keshia Aurelia (pictured left with her mother and brother) told CNN. Nuni Hesti, 53, lost both her son and grandson in the disaster. The pair – Wahyu Aldilla and Xherdan Fahrezi – had traveled to Jakarta to watch a football game over the weekend. Nuni Hesti (left) lost both her son and grandson in the Lion Air flight 610 disaster. Cause of crash remains a mystery The plane, a new Boeing 737 MAX 8, was carrying 181 passengers, as well as six cabin crew members and two pilots, bound for Pangkal Pinang on the Indonesian island of Bangka. It made a request to air traffic control to return to the airport around 19 kilometers (12 miles) after takeoff, but did not indicate there was any emergency. Radar data did not show that the plane had turned back, and air traffic controllers lost contact with it soon after, Yohanes Sirait, spokesman for AirNav Indonesia, the agency that oversees air traffic navigation, told CNN. David Soucie, a former safety inspector with the US Federal Aviation Administration, said the fact that an emergency wasn’t declared should be a cause for concern. “What’s most peculiar to me is the fact that they didn’t declare an emergency. They just simply said, ‘we’re going back’,” said Soucie, a CNN safety analyst.<doc-sep>(CNN) — Pairs of small red children’s shoes, women’s high heels, wallets and empty backpacks line up in rows on the ground of Tanjung Priok port in North Jakarta. For many families, these personal belongings – which have been fished from the sea – are heartbreaking evidence, confirming the fate of those who died on Indonesian Lion Air flight 610 that crashed on Monday. On Wednesday, authorities started bringing relatives to the dockside to identify victims’ personal belongings, which lay piled up next to cushions and other debris that appeared to be from the aircraft. Fished out of the sea were wallets and other personal effects, including a child’s Hello Kitty purse. Ivan Watson Shoes are lined up on the ground of Tanjung Priok port. Epi Syamsul Qomar, whose 24-year-old son was on the flight, broke down in tears when he recognized his son’s shoe. “I saw my son’s black sneaker,” he told CNN. “I also saw his bank checkbook.” Qomar said he believes the body of his son, Muhammad Ravi Andriyan, is still inside the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft. Jo Shelley Epi Syamsul Qomar arrives at the port to see if any of the personal effects retried from the sea belong to his 24-year-old son. ’We will find his body’ Abdul Rahman, 49, whose son Ryan Aryandi was also onboard, said the 24-year-old was on his way to watch a soccer match. Rahman told CNN that he had found his son’s shoes, as well as a black bag that was now empty. He added he will be relieved to find any part of his son’s body. Achmad Ibrahim/AP A wallet belonging to a victim of the Lion Air passenger jet that crashed is seen in the waters of Ujung Karawang, West Java, Indonesia on Monday. Qomar said he was hopeful about finding his son’s remains. “I still believe that we will find his body,” he said. The flight, which was carrying 189 people, including three children, crashed 13 minutes after takeoff. It was supposed to be a one-hour flight to Pangkal Pinang on the island of Bangka. Indonesian investigators are still searching for the flight recorders that they hope will answer questions about why the new aircraft went down. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Tatan Syuflana/AP A relative of one of the crash victims tosses flower petals from an Indonesian Navy ship on Tuesday, November 6. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images Victims' families and colleagues react on a Navy ship as they're ferried to the crash site on November 6. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: BEAWIHARTA/REUTERS An Indonesian official examines a turbine engine from the plane on Sunday, November 4. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Ed Wray/Getty Images People in Jakarta grieve over the coffin of a relative on November 4. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images Indonesian Navy divers recover a flight data recorder on Thursday, November 1. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images Families of the victims look through personal items that were recovered from the wreckage. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images A police officer arranges shoes recovered during search operations. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Edgar Su/Reuters A Navy ship arrives at a search area in the waters of Karawang. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Fauzy Chaniago/AP A relative of a passenger cries at a Jakarta hospital on Tuesday, October 30. Family members have been providing authorities with DNA samples to help identify victims of the crash. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters Officials transport a body bag in Jakarta. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Edgar Su/Reuters Indonesian President Joko Widodo inspects debris. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Fauzy Chaniago/AP Victims' relatives embrace at a police hospital in Jakarta. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Antara Foto/Reuters Soldiers drag ashore an inflatable raft containing debris from the plane. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Achmad Ibrahim/AP A wallet is seen in the water where the plane went down. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters A relative of a passenger cries at a hospital in Jakarta. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Adek Berry/AFP/Getty Images President Widodo (front row, second from right) tours the operations center in Jakarta where debris is laid out. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Edgar Su/Reuters Police work to identify personal belongings that are believed to be from the plane's wreckage. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Edgar Su/Reuters A police officer studies a map in the search-and-rescue command center. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Beawiharta/Reuters A diver with the Indonesian Navy enters the water off the north coast of Karawang. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Jepayona Delita/Barcroft Media/Getty Images Rescue workers carry a body that was recovered from the waters near Jakarta on October 29. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Hadi Sutrisno/AP A woman in Pangkal Pinang prays as she and others wait for news on October 29. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Beawiharta/Reuters People gather on the beach as a rescue team prepares to leave the coast of Karawang. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters Wreckage from the plane lies at a port in Jakarta. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Rony Zakaria/Bloomberg/Getty Images Bagus Sunjoyo, head of airport authority for Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, speaks to members of the media during a news conference. Photos: In photos: Lion Air plane crashes off Indonesia PHOTO: Beawiharta/Reuters People watch a rescue team as a helicopter flies overhead.<doc-sep>Jane Onyanga-Omara and Thomas Maresca USA TODAY Divers, drones and sonar equipment were deployed Tuesday in the recovery operation for the Lion Air plane and the 189 people it was carrying after the aircraft crashed into the Java Sea on Monday, amid reports that it malfunctioned the previous day. Lion Air said in a statement that rescuers sent 24 body bags to a police hospital in the Indonesian capital Jakarta for identification and that the airline flew more than 180 grieving relatives of those aboard to the capital. It said the recovery of the passengers, crew and the 2-month-old Boeing plane was ongoing. Specialist ships and a remotely operated underwater vehicle were searching for the plane’s hull and flight recorder, which authorities believe will not take long to find because of the relatively shallow 115 foot depth of the waters where the plane crashed. Flight JT 610 took off at 6:20 a.m. local time Monday and crashed just 13 minutes later. The flight was bound for the city of Pangkal Pinang on Bangka – Indonesia's ninth-largest island – when it lost contact. Its pilot had requested clearance to return to the airport just 2-3 minutes after takeoff, which aviation experts said indicated a technical problem. The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia’s fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists. The president of Lion Air, Edward Sirait, told reporters Monday that the plane had a technical issue on its previous flight but said it had been resolved according to the manufacturer’s procedures. He did not provide any specific details on that incident. Two passengers on the plane’s previous flight from Bali to Jakarta described numerous issues that caused concern. Indonesian TV presenter Conchita Caroline said in an online post that boarding of the flight Sunday was delayed by more than an hour and when the plane was being towed, a technical problem forced it to return to its parking space. She said passengers sat in the cabin without air conditioning for at least 30 minutes listening to an “unusual” engine roar, while some children vomited from the heat, until staff faced with rising anger let them disembark. After about 30 minutes of passengers waiting on the tarmac, they were told to board again while an engine was checked. Caroline said she queried a staff member but was met with a defensive response. “He just showed me the flight permit that he had signed and said he said the problem had been settled,” she said. “He treated me like a passenger full of disturbing dramas even though what I was asking represented friends and confused tourists who didn’t understand Indonesian.” Another passenger, Alon Soetanto, told TVOne the plane dropped suddenly several 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. “We felt like in a roller coaster. Some passengers began to panic and vomit.” His account is consistent with data from flight-tracking sites that show erratic speed, altitude and direction in the minutes after takeoff. A similar pattern is also seen in data pinged from Monday’s fatal flight. Safety experts cautioned, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the plane’s so-called black boxes. The Boeing 737 MAX series has only been in commercial operation since 2016, and this is the first crash involving the aircraft, a single-aisle plane used for short-haul flights. The plane, which has a capacity of up to 210 passengers, has received 4,783 orders by airlines, with 219 fulfilled as of September 2018, according to company data. Lion Air, which was founded in 1999, has had some safety and maintenance issues in the past and was banned from flying into European airspace from 2007 until 2016. The U.S. lifted a decade long ban in 2016. The airline had a crash in 2004 that killed 25 and has had a number of other incidents, including a crash landing in the sea near Bali in which all 108 passengers survived. The Australian government announced on Monday that it was instructing all government officials and contractors not to fly Lion Air until the findings of the crash investigation are clear. Contributing: The Associated Press<doc-sep>
Relatives numbed by grief provided samples for DNA tests to help identify victims of the Lion Air plane crash that killed 189 people in Indonesia, as accounts emerged Tuesday of problems on the jet's previous flight that included rapid, terrifying descents. Hundreds of rescue personnel searched the Java Sea where the plane crashed, sending more than three dozen body bags to identification experts, while the airline flew dozens of grieving relatives to the capital of Jakarta. The two-month-old Boeing 737 Max 8 jet plunged into the sea early Monday, just 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta for an island off Sumatra. Its pilot requested clearance to return to the airport two to three minutes after takeoff, indicating a problem, though the cause of the crash is still uncertain. Aircraft debris and personal belongings including ID cards, clothing and bags found scattered in the sea were spread out on tarps at a port in north Jakarta and sorted into evidence bags. Arthur Tampi, chief of the police medical unit, said it has received dozens of body parts for identification and is awaiting results of DNA tests, expected to take four to eight days. Plane dropped suddenly during previous flight The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia's fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and U.S. blacklists. Two passengers on the plane's previous flight from Bali to Jakarta on Sunday have described issues that caused frustration and alarm. Alon Soetanto told TVOne the plane dropped suddenly several 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. "We felt like in a roller coaster. Some passengers began to panic and vomit." 'Unusual' engine roar His account is consistent with data from flight-tracking sites that show erratic speed, altitude and direction in the minutes after the jet took off. A similar pattern is also seen in data pinged from Monday's fatal flight. Safety experts cautioned, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the plane's so-called black boxes, which officials are confident will be recovered. Lion Air president Edward Sirait said there were reports of technical problems with the flight from Bali, but they had been resolved in accordance with the plane manufacturer's procedures. The airline didn't respond to requests to verify a document purporting to be a company maintenance report, dated Sunday, that described inaccurate airspeed and altitude readings after takeoff. Rescuers continue search operation in the waters of Tanjung Karawang, Indonesia, on Tuesday. (Tatan Syuflana/Associated Press) In a detailed post online, Indonesian TV presenter Conchita Caroline said boarding of Sunday's flight was delayed by more than an hour and when the plane was being towed, a technical problem forced it to return to its parking space. She said passengers sat in the cabin without air conditioning for at least 30 minutes listening to an "unusual" engine roar, while some children vomited from the overbearing heat, until staff faced with rising anger let them disembark. Experienced pilots in fine weather After about 30 minutes of passengers waiting on the tarmac, they were told to board again while an engine was checked. Caroline said she queried a staff member but was met with a defensive response. "He just showed me the flight permit that he had signed and he said the problem had been settled," she said. "He treated me like a passenger full of disturbing dramas even though what I was asking represented friends and confused tourists who didn't understand Indonesian." Distraught family members struggled to comprehend the sudden loss of loved ones in the crash of a plane with experienced pilots in fine weather. Underwater vehicle deployed "This is a very difficult time for our family," said Leo Sihombing, outside a crisis centre set up for family members at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport. "We know that it is very unlikely that my cousin is still alive, but no one can provide any certainty or explanation," he said as other family members wept and hugged each other. Sangeeta Suneja, mother of Bhavye Suneja, a pilot of Lion Air flight JT610, leaves New Delhi for Jakarta. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters) "What we hope now is rescuers can find his body, so we can bury him properly, and authorities can reveal what caused the plane crash," Sihombing said.