Lion Air crash: Aircraft's wreckage discovered on Indonesian seabed, rescue teams believe

The Lion Air jet that plunged into the ocean from the sky over Indonesia is believed to have been found on the seabed by search and rescue crews.

The potential coordinates of the body of the aircraft, which crashed killing all 189 people on board, has been pinpointed and divers are on their way to confirm the find.

Hadi Tjahjanto, the country’s armed forces chief, delivered the update following a presentation by the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency earlier on Tuesday.

The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia's fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and US blacklists.

 The plane crashed killing all 189 people on board. Rescue teams are working to find victims
EPA

It also raised doubts about the safety of Boeing's new generation 737 MAX 8 plane.

Boeing Co experts are expected to arrive in Indonesia today and Lion Air has said an "intense" internal investigation is under way in addition to the probe by safety regulators.

Locating the fuselage will bring the search effort closer to finding the airplane's flight recorders, which are crucial to the accident investigation.

Data from flight-tracking sites show the plane had erratic speed and altitude in the early minutes of a flight on Sunday and on its fatal flight on Monday.

Lion Air crash in Indonesia

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Safety experts caution, however, that the data must be checked for accuracy against the plane's "black boxes", which officials are confident will be recovered.

Passengers on the Sunday flight from Bali to Jakarta have recounted problems that including a long-delayed take-off for an engine check and terrifying descents in the first 10 minutes in the air.

Officials said the non-stop search effort has sent 48 body bags containing human remains to police identification experts.

Anguished family members have been providing samples for DNA tests and police say results are expected within four to eight days.

Belongings have been recovered as the search continues
Getty Images

Daniel Putut, a Lion Air managing director, said the airline and Boeing will meet this afternoon.

"Of course there are lots of things we will ask them, we all have question marks here, why? What's the matter with this new plane," he said.

Indonesia's Transport Ministry has ordered all Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes operated by Lion Air and national carrier Garuda to be inspected

Boeing declined to comment about potential inspections globally.

The aircraft manufacturer told airlines in a bulletin, "Boeing has no recommended operator action at this time," according to two people familiar with the matter.

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