Indonesia's national Search and Rescue Agency said on Monday that all the 189 people onboard a Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea off western Indonesia may have died.
Director of Operations at the National Search and Rescue Agency Brigadier General Bambang Suryo Aji said that the prediction was based on the condition of the body parts recovered from the surface of the waters.
"My projection is there is no survivor. Because the condition of the bodies of the victims already found were not intact anymore. And this has been several hours after the incident. It is very likely that all the 189 people have been dead," he told a press conference at the agency headquarters.
The director said more than 40 divers were doing their best to find the main body of the plane under water, so far, and a ship with a detector was also searching for the precise position of the plane wreckage of the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane.
"I predict many bodies remain inside the plane."
The search and rescue operation would continue during the day and the night, he added.
Parts of human bodies have been discovered in the waters off Indonesia's West Java province where the Lion Air plane with 189 people aboard crashed, 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.
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 the 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. The pilot joined the low-cost carrier in March 2011, the Indian media reported.
