The flight made a request to air traffic control to return to base about 12 miles out from takeoff, but did not indicate there was any emergency, Yohanes Sirait, spokesman for AirNav Indonesia, the agency that oversees air traffic navigation, told CNN.
The spokesman added that the aircraft would have been given priority landing upon such a request, but that air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane shortly after. The plane had not turned back, according to the radar.
The plane had reported problems the night before on a flight from Denpasar to Jakarta, Lion Air’s CEO Edward Sirait told local media TV1 in an interview.
A relative of passengers prays as she and others wait for news on the Lion Air plane.
Sirait said engineers had checked and repaired the problem and reported that the plane was ready to fly. The Lion Air CEO added that the carrier was preparing two aircraft to fly victims’ family members from Pangkal Pinang to Jakarta.
The captain of the plane, Bhavye Suneja, an Indian national, had more than 6,000 flight hours, and his co-pilot, named Harvino, had logged more than 5,000, according to a statement posted by Lion Air.
Speaking to reporters at the carrier’s headquarters in Jakarta, Sirait said the plane was “airworthy” and that the pilot had carried out all pre-flight inspections according to procedure. He added that the pilots had passed mandatory drug screening.
(CNN)