Indonesian rescue workers believe fuselage of crashed plane found

QUESTIONS

An official of the national transport safety panel has said the plane had technical problems on its previous flight on Sunday, from the city of Denpasar on the resort island of Bali, including an issue over "unreliable airspeed".

Privately owned Lion Air, founded in 1999, said the aircraft had been in operation since August and was airworthy. The pilot and co-pilot had 11,000 hours of flying time between them, it said.

Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait has acknowledged reports of technical problems with the aircraft, but said maintenance had been carried out "according to procedure" before it was cleared for flight again.

Investigators are looking into why the pilot had asked to return to base shortly after take-off, a request that ground control officials had granted, although the flight crashed soon after.

They will also question pilots who flew the same aircraft from Bali to Jakarta on Sunday.

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The airline is to meet a team from Boeing on Wednesday to discuss the fate of the plane.

Although it is now almost certain that everyone on the plane died, relatives are desperate to find traces of their loved ones. Only body parts and debris have been found.

Reuters