"There were technical issues, one of them was indeed unreliable airspeed," committee deputy chief Haryo Satmiko told a news conference, referring to problems with the plane on a flight from Bali to Jakarta on Sunday evening. He said the committee has a recording of the conversation between the pilot of the plane before it crashed and the control tower at Jakarta. Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait told reporters on Monday that a technical problem had occurred on the Sunday flight but it had been resolved "according to procedure".

Drones and sonar technology have been deployed to search for the plane which went down 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta with 189 passengers and crew on board. There has been no sign of survivors but debris and personal belongings have been collected from the water. Officials say the pilot of the Boeing 737 had asked to return to Soekarno-Hatta airport shortly before losing contact with air traffic control.