A spokesman for the Indonesian Finance Ministry said 20 of its employees were on the plane. The Australian government announced on Monday night that it had banned all government officials and contractors from flying with Lion until the findings of the crash investigation were clear. Basarnas has sent out boats and helicopters to search for the plane and has found wreckage and lifejackets. About 150 rescuers, including 40 divers from Basarnas and the Marines, have been sent to the scene. Basarnas’ deputy head of operations Nigroho Budi Wiryanto had indicated at a second press conference on Monday afternoon that it was unlikely any survivors would be found. "We are waiting for the miracles from God Almighty," he said. The depth of the water where the plane is believed to have crash landed is 30 to 35 metres. Search and rescue workers have still not found the black box or the main body of the plane. However, rescuers have turned up ID cards, BPJS (goverment insurance) cards, driving licences and other personal effects. Recovery teams sift through debris believed to be from the crashed Lion Air flight. Credit:Twitter: Sutopo_PN The weather at the time of the crash was clear, and Lion Air said the plane’s pilot, Captain Bhavye Suneja, had more than 6000 flying hours of experience. His co-pilot Harvino had more than 5000 hours of flying experience. The Boeing plane was new, having been manufactured in 2018 and operated by Lion Air since August 15. It had clocked up just 800 hours of flying time. It’s believed the emergency locator transmitter (ELT) on the plane was inactive. Basarnas chief Muhammad Syaugi said early on Monday, soon after the crash was reported, that Indonesia had checked with Australian authorities to see if any signal from the ELT had been intercepted, but it had not. In a statement, Boeing said it 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." Families of passengers on the plane flocked to the airport at Pangkal Pinang, where the plane was supposed to land. Distraught friends and relatives prayed and hugged each other as they waited for news. Relatives of passengers comfort each other at Depati Amir Airport in Pangkal Pinang as they wait for news on a Lion Air plane that crashed off Java Island. Credit:AP At the National Search and Rescue Agency headquarters in Jakarta, family members turned up, hoping desperately for news. Feni, who uses a single name, said her soon to be married sister was on the flight, planning to meet relatives in Pangkal Pinang. "We are here to find any information about my younger sister, her fiance, her in-law to be and a friend of them," Feni said. "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 that our family is still alive." It's not known if any Australians were on board the flight. A spokesman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said "the Australian embassy in Jakarta is making urgent inquiries with local authorities to determine if any Australians were affected". Poor safety record Lion Air, which flies to 126 destinations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and China, is the second largest low-cost carrier in south-east Asia (after Malaysia's AirAsia), and is growing fast. The low-cost carrier had a poor safety record for many years. It was banned by the EU from flying over European airspace along with other Indonesian airlines in 2007, and the ban was only lifted in 2016. Loading Since 2002, Lion Air has had more than a dozen major incidents or accidents. The most deadly was in 2004 when a plane overshot the runway and crashed into a cemetery in Surakarta, killing 31 people. In 2013, a Lion Air flight with more than 100 people on board crashed into the water off Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport. All on board survived, despite the fuselage breaking in half, but 46 people were injured, four seriously. That crash was blamed on pilot error. Lion pilots have tested positive to methamphetamine on a number of occasions since 2011, leading to concern of a culture of drug use among Indonesian pilots. The most recent case was in December 2017 when a senior pilot was arrested for crystal meth possession after a hotel room raid, and tested positive for the drug a day before he was due to fly.<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>Read Also Read Also NEW DELHI: The crash of Lion Air’s Boeing 737 Max in Indonesia on Monday has sent ripples across India too. Two Indian carriers, Jet Airways and SpiceJet, have ordered 225 and up to 205, respectively, of this latest version of the popular Boeing 737 which has always been the mainstay of their fleets.At the moment, Jet is flying five B737 Max and SpiceJet has one. The B737 Max which crashed on Monday was a brand new plane which had been inducted in Lion Air fleet on August 15, 2018, and had done less than 800 hours .A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said: “Since six Boeing 737 Max are operating with two Indian operators, Jet Airways and SpiceJet, we are in touch with Boeing and Federal Aviation Administration (US aviation regulator FAA)… to know more details about the unfortunate accident. Boeing has informed that as on September 2018, 219 B737 Max airplanes have been delivered across the world. As far as operation of B737 Max with Indian operators is concerned, no technical issue has been experienced by the operators.”The Boeing website says: “The 737 Max is the fastest selling airplane in Boeing history, accumulating nearly 4,700 orders from more than 100 customers worldwide.” After the Lion Air crash , the US aircraft major tweeted: “Boeing is aware of reports of an airplane accident and is closely monitoring the situation…. Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance to the accident investigation. The last flight before the crash of Lion Air's Max 8 (registration PK-LQP) was from Bali to Jakarta on Sunday. The aircraft flight maintenance log for this flight JT 43 reported some malfunctions like its indicated airspeed (IAS) and altitude indicators had “disagree shown after take off”.A report of this Bali to Jakarta flight by the crew is learnt to have said: “Airspeed unreliable and alt (altitude) disagree shown after take off. (Some other measure) was also running to the wrong direction, suspected because of speed difference.”ALT disagree means the airspeed indicator disagreed between the captain and co-pilot indicators.<doc-sep>A round-the-clock search is underway for the bodies of the 189 passengers onboard Lion Air flight JT 610, which crashed into the sea off Jakarta on Monday morning. Human remains were recovered from the crash site, about 15km (9 miles) off the coast. Authorities say search and rescue teams are now focusing on several areas off the coast of Java where they believe the body of the plane is located, saying that is where they expect to find the most victims. They do not expect to find survivors. The passenger plane, flying from Jakarta to an Indonesian tin-mining region, lost contact with air traffic control about 13 minutes after take off on Monday morning. Flight data showed that it made a sudden, sharp dive into the sea. The cause of the crash is unknown. Search teams have so far filled 10 body bags. Another 14 bags filled with debris, including handbags, clothing, mobile phones, ID cards and driving licences, have also been collected. The head of Basarnas, the national search and rescue agency, Muhammad Syauqi, said that no human remains had been found since 11am on Monday. As a result an underwater search had begun, involving 30 specialised divers, according to the Jakarta Post. Lion Air has flown 169 family members of those on board JT610 to Jakarta to help with identifying the remains. The plane went down in waters about 30-35 metres (98-115ft) deep and divers were searching areas they believe the plane might be, based on wind and current patterns. The search is due to last for seven days, with an additional three days if the plane has not been found. Families of those onboard waited anxiously for news at Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta. Forensics officers asked them to assist with identification by providing medical and dental records at the police hospital in East Jakarta. 01:21 Lion Air crash: divers continue to search sea for bodies and plane – video report One of those onboard was Bhavye Suneja, who lived in Jakarta with his wife of two years. The rest of his family live in Delhi. Kapish Gandhi, Suneja’s cousin, said the family was devastated by the news and had gathered together in Delhi. “We saw it on the television this morning and didn’t know whether to believe it,” Gandhi said. “We are all speechless.” Gandhi described Suneja as someone who loved his work. “He was very much interested in it,” he said. A second foreigner, 26-year-old Italian national and former professional cyclist Andrea Manfredi is believed to be among those who were on board JT-610. Italian newspaper Il Messaggero reported the news, saying the Italian foreign ministry confirmed Indonesian media reports that included Manfredi’s name was on the flight manifest. Manfredi’s former cycling team Bardiani expressed their condolences via its Twitter account on Monday. “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.” As relatives waited for news, they were warned about false images purporting to be of passengers onboard were being circulated online. A wallet belonging to a victim of the Lion Air passenger jet that crashed off Jakarta. Photograph: Achmad Ibrahim/AP Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster relief agency, published examples of misleading Twitter posts, including an image of a fuselage of a Lion Air plane lying in the sea. Nugroho said it was being shared as an image of the JT610 flight, but this was a “hoax”. “This is a photo of the wreck of the aircraft of Lion Air JT904”, which crashed into water in Bali in 2013. All onboard survived the incident. The JT610 plane that crashed off Jakarta was a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, a new model that was launched globally last year. The plane had been in use for less than three months. Lion Air’s chief executive, Edward Sirait, told reporters the plane had suffered “a technical issue” on Sunday night but engineers had cleared it to fly on Monday morning. “This plane previously flew from Denpasar to Jakarta,” he said. “There was a report of a technical issue, which had been resolved according to procedure.” Sirait did not elaborate on the issue and said he had no plans to ground the rest of Lion Air’s Max 8 fleet. The airline operates 11 of the Boeing planes. The Boeing Company released a statement saying it was “deeply saddened” by the news and extended “heartfelt sympathies to the families and loved ones of those on board”. The company further said it was providing technical assistance at the request and under the direction of government authorities investigating the accident. An official from AirNav Indonesia has said the JT610 pilot asked to turn back only two to three minutes after taking off from Soekarno Hatta airport. “We received the request from the pilot to return to base. The air traffic controller gave permission to return, and there is a recording of it,” said AirNav president director Novie Riyanto in a press conference at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. The crash has renewed concerns about the safety of Indonesian airlines, soon after US and European regulators removed prohibitions against them. The United States and the European Union had banned Indonesian aircraft from their skies in 2007 after a string of accidents. The Federal Aviation Administration lifted that ban in August 2016. In June, European regulators, who had already allowed Lion Air and a few other Indonesian carriers to resume flying to Europe, lifted their ban on remaining Indonesian carriers. A spokesman said the European Commission had no immediate plans to renew the ban on Lion Air, but the Australian government warned its officials and contractors not to fly on Lion Air pending findings from the crash investigation. Additional reporting by Kakoli Bhattacharya<doc-sep>
A brand-new jet airliner carrying 189 passengers and crew crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from Indonesia's capital on Monday, prompting a major effort in the region that soon turned from rescue to recovery when officials disclosed there were likely no survivors. The Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft had just taken off from Jakarta when the pilot requested to return to the airport three minutes into the flight. Data for Lion Air's Flight 610 on aircraft tracking website FlightAware ends just a few minutes following takeoff, with the plane at an altitude of only 5,200 feet. An air transport official, Novie Riyanto, told the Associated Press the flight was cleared to return to Jakarta after the pilot made a "return to base" request, but the flight plunged into the sea about 10 minutes later. After a massive search effort was launched, operation director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters that officials are not expecting to find any survivors, Sky News reported. "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," he said. There were 189 people on-board the plane, including crew. Among them were two children and a baby. A disaster agency spokesman posted photos of the debris including a crushed smartphone, books, bags, and parts of the aircraft fuselage that had been collected by search and rescue vessels. The National Search and Rescue Agency said about 300 people -- including soldiers, police, and local fisherman were involved in the search, and besides body parts that ID cards, personal belongings, and aircraft debris were also recovered. SUBSCRIBE TO FOX NEWS FIRST -- YOUR BRIEFING ON ALL THE STORIES TO START THE DAY Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait said there was a "technical problem" with the plane on an earlier flight, which had been fixed, according to Sky News. "It got repaired in Denpasar [in Bali] and then it was flown to Jakarta," he said. "Engineers in Jakarta received notes and did another repair before it took off on Monday. That's the normal procedure for any plane." Meanwhile, dozens of people waited anxiously outside the Pangkal Pinang airport while officials brought out plastic chairs, Indonesian TV showed. Feni, who uses a single name, told the AP her soon-to-be-married sister was on the flight, planning to meet relatives in Pangkal Pinang. "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 that our family is still alive." The Boeing 737 Max 8 was delivered to Lion Air in mid-August and put in use within days, according to aviation website Flightradar24. Malindo Air, a Malaysian subsidiary of Jakarta-based Lion Air, was the first airline using the 737 Max 8 last year. The Max 8 replaced the similar 800 in the Chicago-based plane maker's product line. Boeing Co. released a statement offering its "heartfelt sympathies" to the passengers' "families and loved ones." The Chicago-based manufacturer said it was prepared to provide technical assistance to search efforts. The crash is Indonesia's worst airline disaster since AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea in December 2014, killing all 162 on board. Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 from flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June this year. The U.S. lifted a decade-long ban in 2016. On Monday, the European Commission said it had no immediate plans to ban Lion Air again, saying it will analyze the results of the investigation into the disaster. PILOT IN CRASH THAT KILLED BRITISH FAMILY MAY HAVE BEEN KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS BY PERSON TAKING PHOTO, REPORT SAYS Australia's foreign affairs ministry, however, said that government officials and contractors "have been instructed not to fly on Lion Air or their subsidiary airlines" in the wake of the crash. "This decision will be reviewed when the findings of the crash investigation are clear," the agency said in a statement. Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest and biggest airlines, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations.