Human remains recovered from site of Lion Air plane crash
Human remains have been recovered after a flight crashed just minutes after departure from Indonesia.
Lion Air flight JT610 crashed not long after taking off from Jakarta on Monday morning.
Officials have now confirmed human remains have been recovered from the crash site 15km off the coast.
Search and rescue head Muhammad Syaugi said no distress signal had been received from the aircraft’s emergency transmitter.
“We don’t know yet whether there are any survivors,” he said. “We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm.”
“We need to find the main wreckage,” Bambang Suryo, operational director of an Indonesian search and rescue agency, told reporters.
“I predict there are no survivors, based on body parts found so far.”
In total, 189 people were on board.
More than 23 government officials, four employees of state tin miner PT Timah, and three employees of a Timah subsidiary were on the plane.
A Lion Air official said one Italian passenger and one Indian pilot were on board.
It’s not known if any Australians were passengers but The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is investigating.
“The Australian Embassy in Jakarta is making urgent enquiries with local authorities to determine if any Australians were on board the flight,” DFAT said in a statement.
The plane went down in waters about 30 to 35 metres deep.
Items such as mobile phones and life vests were found, along with body parts.
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 also being used to help in the search.
Plane had previous ‘technical problem’
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”.
Mr 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 8, 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, and its pilot and co-pilot had together accumulated 11,000 hours of flying time.
Families cling to hope for survivors
Feni, who uses a single name, said her soon-to-be-married sister was on the flight and planning to meet relatives in Pangkal Pinang.
“We are here to find any information about my younger sister, her fiancé, her in-law to be and a friend of them,” said Feni.
“We don’t have any information. No-one provided us with any information that we need.
“We’re confused. We hope that our family is still alive.”
– With Reuters and Associated Press
