It was a major tragedy for Indonesia when a Lion Air Boeing 737 Flight JT 610 with 189 people onboard crashed into the sea. It was on its way to Pangkal Pinang in the Bangka Belitung Islands. The Boeing was a new single aisle aircraft meant for short-haul Travel, and one of the latest built in 2018 to enter service in August. Obviously, the crash of a new aircraft is a matter of concern. The composition of people onboard was 178 adults, one infant and two babies apart from the two pilots and a number of cabin crew members.

The BBC reports that Lion Air is the largest low-cost carrier of Indonesia.

The aircraft involved is a Boeing 737 Max, which is an updated version of the 737. It is in use since 2016 and the ill-fated aircraft entered service recently. Rescuers rushed to the spot and retrieved several items floating in the water but there is no sign of any survivor. Anxious family members have gathered at Jakarta's Airport waiting for news of their beloved ones.

The pilot reported some technical problems

It seems the pilot of the Lion Air Boeing 737 Flight JT 610 wanted to return to Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport.

The head of Pangkal Pinang’s search and rescue office has revealed this. Edward Sirait, the chief executive of the airline, admitted that the there was some unspecified "technical issue" on a previous flight and added that it was resolved.

Incidentally, Lion Air has a fleet of 11 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft and there is no report of a similar incident earlier, hence there will be no grounding of the fleet.

Edward Sirait has confirmed this. Both the pilot and co-pilot had cumulative flying hours of more than 11,000 between them and were experienced to handle such flights.

Efforts are on to locate the black box

In case of any aircraft crash, investigators concentrate on locating the black box that contains a wide range of data that are useful to conduct post mortems.

Experts analyze these to establish the probable reason for the crash. According to The Telegraph UK, an official of Indonesia's safety transport committee has said that the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of Lion Air Boeing 737 Flight JT 610 can throw light on the cause of the crash. The black box preserves these data. Rescue teams have retrieved aircraft parts like seats from near an offshore refining facility. The aircraft crashed in waters off West Java that are around 100 feet deep. Indonesia consists of innumerable islands connected by air, and The Flightradar website had tracked the flight path of Flight JT 610, which will help the investigation.
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