PLANE CAPTAINED BY INDIAN CRASHES WITH 189 ON BOARD
Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja was among those who died on Monday after the Indonesian plane he captained crashed in the Java Sea.
There was no sign of the 189 passengers and crew on board, after the budget carrier Lion Air flight JT610, an almost new Boeing 737 MAX 8, sank in the sea a little while after take-off. Later in the day, rescue officials said they had recovered some human remains from the crash site, about 15 km (9 miles) off the coast.
The plane lost contact with ground staff shortly after the pilot asked that whether he could turn back to base, about 13 minutes after it took off, officials said.
The plane went down in waters about 30 metres to 35 metres (98 to 115 feet) deep. Items such as hand phones and life vests were found, along with the body parts.
Captain Suneja (31) had 6,000 flight hours and the co-pilot more than 5,000 flight hours.
He was a resident of Jakarta though he is originally from New Delhi. The plane was delivered in August and had 800 hours of flying time. Preliminary flight tracking data showed the aircraft climbed to around 5,000 feet before losing, and then regaining, height, before finally plummeting into the sea.
The top priority for investigators will be finding the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to help determine the cause, a media report said, quoting safety experts.