189 feared dead as plane crashes into sea off Indonesia

Dozens of divers were attempting to reach the wreckage of a Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea off western Indonesia on Monday, while two black boxes of the ill-fated aircraft had been located, a senior rescue official said.

The plane with 189 people aboard went down off Karawang of Indonesia's West Java province shortly after taking off from Jakarta.

All the people on board, including two babies and one child, remained missing after the crash, according to the national search and rescue agency.

"We are carrying out diving to search and rescue the victims. By far, we have recovered some small wreckage on the surface of sea, but not the main body of the plane," Director of Operation of the National Search and Rescue Office Maj. General Nugroho Budi Wiryanto said.

"Our device has located the black boxes," he added, referring to the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

A total of 30 divers from the search and rescue office, air force, army and police were conducting the operation, Wiryanto told a press conference at the headquarters of the agency.

As many as of 300 personnel from the search and rescue office, as well as soldiers and policemen had been dispatched to the scene for the search and rescue operation.

Some local sailors would also join the operation, Wiryanto added.

"The depth is favorable for diving and the weather is supportive although strong underwater currents may be an obstacle," the chief rescuer said, citing the waters with an average depth of between 30 and 35 meters.

Head of the agency Muhammad Syaugi said earlier that three ships, one helicopter and several boats had been deployed to the crash site.

The Lion Air plane with flight number of JT 610 took off from the Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Banten province on Monday morning, according to the agency.

The plane carried a total of 189 people, including 181 passengers and eight crew members, spokesman of the Transport Ministry Bambang Ervan said.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft bound for Pangkal Pinang left the Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta at around 6:10 a.m. local time, he said.

"The plane had requested (the air traffic control) to return to base before disappearing from radar," Ervan told Xinhua by phone.

Another Xinhua report said: Parts of human bodies have been discovered in the waters off Indonesia's West Java province where a Lion Air plane with 189 people aboard crashed on Monday, a rescue official said.

"Several parts of human bodies and things have been found on the scene," Yusuf Latief, head of communication for media of the national search and rescue office, told Xinhua by phone.

The findings would be brought to the newly set up crisis center in Tanjung Periuk port of Jakarta before being shifted to the police hospital, Yusuf said.

The chief rescuer could not give a specific number of the retrieved bodies.

As many as 30 divers were trying to reach the main wreckage of the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane, according to the agency.

Two babies and one child were among the people onboard the JT 610 flight, which crashed into the sea off Karawang of West Java province shortly after taking off from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta international airport, according to the Transport Ministry.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered the National Commission for Transportation Safety to investigate the cause of the plane crash.

While attending a conference in Bali on Monday, the Indonesia president said rescuers were making their best efforts to find victims.

Responding to reports that plane had a technical problem on its last flight, Lion Air's President Director Edward Sirait said the technical problem on the plane was resolved in accordance with the manufacturer's procedures.

An Indian pilot was among the people onboard the crashed plane, who joined the low-cost carrier in March 2011, the Indian media reported.