Jakarta, OCT 29 : All 189 passenger and crew aboard a crashed Indonesian jet were “likely” killed in the accident, Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said Monday, as it announced it had found human remains.
“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,” agency operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters.
There was no sign of any survivors from Lion Air flight JT610, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, and rescue officials said later on Monday they had recovered some human remains from the crash site, about 15 km (9 miles) off the coast.
The plane lost contact with ground officials shortly after its pilot had asked to turn back to base, about 13 minutes after it took off, officials said.
Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, although its safety record is patchy. If all aboard have died, the crash would be the country’s second-worst air disaster since 1997, industry experts said.
