Likely Seabed Position of Lion Air Jet Found

A massive search effort has identified the possible seabed location of the crashed Lion Air jet, Indonesia's military chief said Wednesday, as experts carried out the grim task of identifying dozens of body parts recovered from a 15-nautical-mile-wide search area. The 2-month-old Boeing plane plunged into the Java Sea on Monday just minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board. "This morning I've been briefed by the head of Search and Rescue Agency about the strong possibility of the location coordinates" of Flight 610, said armed forces chief Hadi Tjahjanto. "We're going to see it ourselves on location. And hopefully that is the main body of the plane that we've been looking for."

Navy officer Haris Djoko Nugroho, interviewed by Indonesian television at the search location, said the 72-foot long object is at a depth of 105 feet and divers will be deployed after sonar has produced more detailed images. The disaster has reignited concerns about safety in Indonesia's fast-growing aviation industry, which was recently removed from European Union and US blacklists, and also raised doubts about the safety of Boeing's new generation 737 MAX 8 plane, the AP reports. Boeing Co. experts are expected to arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday and Lion Air has said an "intense" internal investigation is underway in addition to the probe by safety regulators. (A "small metal tube" may have been the cause of the crash.)