Part of fuselage from crashed plane possibly located, officials say

FAN Editor

Last Updated Oct 31, 2018 1:30 AM EDT

A team searching for Indonesia’s Lion Air Flight JT610 heard a “pinging sound” late Tuesday, possibly indicating they may have the seabed location of the doomed airliner’s fuselage off Jakarta’s coast. The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet, a plane put into service two months ago, plunged into the Java Sea moments after takeoff early Monday.

There were 189 people on board, including three children, and they are all presumed dead.

Indonesia’s military chief said he believes Flight JT610 has been found.

“Based on the presentation of the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, the coordinates of the suspected body of the aircraft have been found,” Hadi Tjahjanto told an Indonesian TV station. “We will send a team there to confirm,” he added.

“Pinger locators” are being used to try to locate the so-called “black boxes” containing the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, according to the Reuters news agency.

“Yesterday afternoon, the team had heard a ping sound in a location at 35 meters depth,” Haryo Satmiko, the deputy chief of the national transport safety panel, told Reuters, referring to a depth of 115 feet.

Recovery crews in Indonesia have been finding bodies and debris over the last couple days. Lion Air’s president admitted the aircraft, delivered in August, had a “technical issue” in its previous flight Sunday but insisted the problem was fixed.

Late Tuesday, news of 13 more body bags have been sent for DNA analysis, bringing the total to 37 so far.

Indonesian transportation officials are looking into imposing sanctions on Lion Air operations following the fatal crash. This is the first crash involving the Boeing 737 Max 8, one of the company’s most advanced jets. Boeing said experts are expected to arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday as an “intense” internal investigation by Lion Air is underway.

Flight-tracking websites had documented the plane’s erratic speed and altitude in the early stages of a flight earlier Sunday and the fatal last flight Monday. The Associated Press reports safety experts are exercising caution before coming to a conclusion to what caused the flight to crash.

Preliminary data will be checked for accuracy against the plane’s “black boxes,” which officials are confident will be recovered, AP added.

Indonesia’s troubled aviation history

The crash is the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea in December 2014, killing all 162 on board.

Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 were 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 decadelong ban in 2016.

Lion Air, a discount carrier, 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.

Kris Van Cleave contributed to this report.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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