Families awaiting news of their loved ones after the plane they were travelling on crashed into the sea off Indonesia have been told there are likely no survivors.

The Lion Air flight between Jakarta and an island off Sumatra went down on Monday morning, with the passenger jet having lost contact just 13 minutes after take-off.

Operation director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters: "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."

Image: At Depati Amir airport in Pangkal Pinang, anxious relatives of passengers wait for news

Among the 189 people on-board were crew, one baby, two children, and around 20 members of staff from the Indonesian finance ministry.

Relatives are gathering at Pangkal Pinang airport - where the plane had been due to arrive - and the Indonesian National Search and Rescue Agency headquarters in Jakarta.


The Boeing 737-800 - which Lion Air has said had a previous "technical problem" that had been resolved - left the Indonesian capital at 6.20am and was headed north to Pangkal Pinang, on the island of Bangka, at around 7.20am.

Image: Debris thought to be from the plane has been recovered

Serpihan pesawat Lion Air JT 610 yang jatuh di perairan Karawang. Beberapa kapal tug boad membantu menangani evakuasi. Video diambil petugas tug boad yang ada di perairan Karawang. pic.twitter.com/4GhKcRYkpG — Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) October 29, 2018

Feni, who uses a single name, said her soon-to-be-married sister was on the flight and had been planning to meet relatives in Pangkal Pinang.

She said: "We are here to find any information about my younger sister, her fiance, her in-law to be and a friend of them.

"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."

Image: Workers on a ship look at what is thought to be debris from the crashed flight

The crew of a tug boat nearby told authorities they saw a plane falling from the sky.

Yusuf Latif, a spokesperson for the search and rescue agency, said it had crashed into water "about 30 to 40 metres deep".

Image: Images show the path of the flight disappearing suddenly. Pic: Flightradar24.com

Flight Radar said it was processing detailed information transmitted by the aircraft and that "preliminary data shows an increase in speed and decrease in altitude at last transmission".

The flight tracking service reported that the plane, powered by two CFM LEAP-1B engines, had been delivered to Lion Air in August this year.

The accident is the first involving the Boeing 737 MAX model, which are more fuel-efficient versions of the manufacturer's single-aisle passenger jet.

We're following reports that contact has been lost with Lion Air flight #JT610 shortly after takeoff from Jakarta.



ADS-B data from the flight is available at https://t.co/zNM33cM0na pic.twitter.com/NIU7iuCcFu — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) 29 October 2018

Lion Air said that the plane was airworthy, adding that the pilots on board had a total of 11,000 hours flying time between them, but chief executive Edward Sirait admitted the plane had a technical problem on a previous flight.

He said it had been resolved "according to procedure" following the journey from Denpasar to Cengkareng, but has not specified what the issue was.

Boeing tweeted it was "aware of reports of an air-plane accident and is closely monitoring the situation".

Boeing is aware of reports of an airplane accident and is closely monitoring the situation. — Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) 29 October 2018

Low-cost carrier Lion Air began operating in 2000, one year after its founding, and now operates 183 routes within Indonesia and surrounding countries including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and China.

Between 2007 and 2016, the EU banned the airline from flying to member locations.

Lion Air is one of many new carriers in Indonesia, an island nation that relies heavily on air travel but has attracted a reputation for poor regulation.

Weather around Jakarta was reported to be cloudy this morning, with a rising chance of rain throughout the day.