Families and friends of passengers on Lion Air Flight JT610 were overcome with grief after being told that rescuers have yet to find any survivors from the ill-fated flight which crashed into the Java Sea yesterday morning.
Favourable weather conditions enabled divers and other search and rescue personnel to recover the personal belongings of some passengers and locate the tail section of the Boeing 737 Max plane.
But when asked if any of the 189 people on the flight have been found, Brigadier General Nugroho Budi Wiryanto, who is deputy chief of operations at Indonesia's national search and rescue agency Basarnas, would say only that the search is still ongoing.
"No bodies have been found yet," he added. "We are waiting for miracles from God."
Flight JT610, which was on its way to Pangkal Pinang, in Bangka Belitung Islands province, departed Jakarta on schedule at 6.20am local time, but lost contact with air traffic controllers about 13 minutes later.
Many had gathered either at the Lion Air crisis centre at the Soekarno-Hatta airport or Basarnas headquarters in Jakarta yesterday for news of their loved ones who were on the flight.
One of them, 56-year-old Latief Nurbana, is still clinging to hope that his son is alive. He told The Straits Times yesterday at the Lion Air crisis centre that his son Muhammad Lutfi Nuramdani, 24, was on his way to Pangkal Pinang, where he was working.
"His wife is from Pangkal Pinang, and she is seven months' pregnant," said Mr Latief, his voice breaking with emotion.
Indonesia's Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati was also at Basarnas yesterday for a briefing on rescue operations.
Of the 189 people on board the aircraft, 20 were staff members from her ministry and other government agencies who were in Jakarta at the weekend for a commemorative event, she added.
"We have received an explanation from Basarnas chief regarding the process of locating the plane and the location where it is likely to have crashed," she said. "I am very concerned about the passengers."
More than 300 personnel from Basarnas, the Indonesian military and police were mobilised for search and rescue operations, which will be carried out for seven days, and extended by three days if needed. The Indonesian navy has deployed the KRI Rigel, a warship equipped with remotely operated vehicle and sonar technology.
A team of three specialists from Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau yesterday evening arrived in Jakarta with an underwater locator beacon detector to assist with the search.
In a late update last night, the Basarnas director of operations, Brigadier General Bambang Suryo Aji, said the search area had expanded to 150 square nautical miles and a depth of 30m to 34m.
The search for the black box flight recorder and the remains of the aircraft is expected to continue overnight.
Brig-Gen Bambang said divers have found body parts at the crash site. "We have put them in six body bags, and they were immediately taken to the National Police Hospital," he added. "We found parts of legs, hands, ears and even stomach contents, but still no survivors."
The Boeing 737 Max is one of the latest variants of the American-built passenger aircraft.
Indonesian Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi confirmed that Lion Air took delivery of the plane only on Aug 13, and it had clocked about 800 hours.
The aircraft was commanded by Captain Bhavye Suneja, and co-pilot Harvino, who like many Indonesians goes by just one name.
A Lion Air spokesman said that Capt Bhavye, an Indian national, had more than 6,000 flight hours under his belt, while his co-pilot had more than 5,000 flight hours.
