"Based on the presentation of the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, the coordinates of the suspected body of the aircraft have been found".

It was heading to Pangkal Pinang, just an hour away.

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

"The now operating Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft have been inspected and we will continue to monitor and supervise closely, day by day, and if it is found to be significant we will do another inspection and ground them if needed".

In more recent developments, the plane's black box was finally found and retrieved by search and rescue divers.

Commercial airliners are required to carry two boxes, one which records flight tracking data and another which records conversations from the cockpit.

Earlier, a navy official said Indonesian search and rescue workers have detected a 22-metre long object underwater in the area where the passenger jet with 189 people on board crashed.

Lion Air was among Indonesian airlines that were banned by the European Union from 2007 through 2016, according to the Aviation Safety Network database maintained by the Flight Safety Foundation.

The government has ordered that all Boeing 737 MAX 8 flown by Indonesian carriers be checked following Monday's crash of Lion Air flight JT610, which used the same type of aircraft.

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But Lion's admission that the plane had an unspecified technical issue on a previous flight - as well as the plane's abrupt nose dive just 12 minutes after takeoff - have raised questions about whether the plane had any faults specific to the newly released model.

"I cried when I heard the news because my friends were aboard the flight", he said as quoted by Antara on Monday.

The government has vowed "strict sanctions" on Lion Air if a probe by the safety board proves negligence on the part of the airline, the ministry said on October 31.

Sony Setiawan, an official in Indonesia's finance ministry, said he flew on Lion Air's 610 flight on a weekly basis for work and had bought a ticket for the fatal flight.

Minutes after the device was taken out of the sea, Bambang Irawan, an investigator with the transport safety committee, said it was the flight data recorder.

She said passengers sat in the cabin without air conditioning for at least 30 minutes listening to an "unusual" engine roar, while some children vomited from the overbearing heat, until staff faced with rising anger let them disembark.

Another passenger said the flight was turbulent and the seatbelt signs remain on throughout the flight.

Indonesian airlines were barred in 2007 were flying to Europe because of safety concerns, though several were allowed to resume services in the following decade. The ban was completely lifted in June.

Founded in 1999, Lion Air is Indonesia's largest low-priced airline and has had half a dozen non-fatal accidents and one fatal accident, which occurred in 2004 in the city of Solo, leaving 25 people dead.