“This plane previously flew from Denpasar to Cengkareng (Jakarta). There was a report of a technical issue which had been resolved according to procedure,” Edward Sirait told reporters, declining to specify the nature of the technical issue.
He said Lion has operated 11 aircraft of the same model, the Boeing 737 Max 8, and the other planes did not have the same technical problem. Sirait said there was no plan to ground the rest of its Boeing 737 Max 8 fleet.
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.
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.
There were 30 government employees reported to be passengers on the plane - 10 employees of the Audit Board of Indonesia (BPK) and 20 employees of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu).
At least 23 government officials, four employees of state tin miner PT Timah and 3 employees of a Timah subsidiary were on the plane. A Lion Air official said on Italian passenger and one Indian pilot were on board.
Boeing was deeply saddened by the loss, it said in a statement, and was ready to provide technical assistance for the investigation.
