Search and rescue teams have recovered the remains of nine of the 189 passengers and crew on board Lion Air flight JT610, which crashed into the waters north of Karawang, West Java, only 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Monday morning.

Personnel from the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) took the remains in nine body bags to the Bhayangkara National Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta.

The fuselage of the doomed aircraft has yet to be located, but parts of the plane have been found. The depth of the Java Sea where the crash occurred ranges between 30 and 40 meters.

After spending hours scouring debris in the waters about 7 nautical miles (12.96 kilometers) north of Tanjung Bungin in Karawang, rescue workers found no indication that anyone had survived the crash. “It is my belief that no one is alive,” Basarnas operation director Bambang Suryo Aji told a press conference on Monday.

Bambang’s announcement dashed the desperate hopes of families of the victims that their loved ones might be rescued.

Air traffic control at Soekarno-Hatta lost contact with flight JT610 bound for Depati Amir Airport in Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung Islands, at 6:33 a.m. shortly after it took off at 6:20 a.m. from the airport.

The National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) said 178 adult passengers, one child, two infants, two pilots and six cabin crew were on board the aircraft.

A senior AirNav official has confirmed that the pilot had requested a return to base only two to three minutes after takeoff.

“We received the request from the pilot to return to base. The air traffic controller gave permission to return, and there is a recording of it,” said AirNav president director Novie Riyanto in a press conference at Soekarno-Hatta.

Earlier, Lion Air said that a technical problem had been reported by pilots when the same aircraft was flying from Denpasar in Bali to Jakarta on the night before the crash.

“There was a report of a technical issue previously, but the problem had been addressed according to the correct procedures [after the plane landed at Soekarno-Hatta airport],” Lion Air CEO Edward Sirait said.

Consoling: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo talks to relatives of the passengers of Lion Air flight JT 610 at the Soekarno-Hatta Crisis Center in Cengkareng, Banten, on Monday (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

Edward added that the plane had been declared ready for takeoff by Lion Air engineers before flying to Pangkalpinang.

Edward did not reveal details of the technical problem.

The aircraft used in the ill-fated flight was a Boeing 737 Max 8, which had been delivered in August and had only clocked up 800 flight hours.

Shortly before its first delivery of the single-aisle 737 Max, Boeing reported a problem with the new engine, prompting it to ground the entire Max fleet.

The Seattle Times reported that the manufacturer had learned that metal discs inside some of its new LEAP engines could potentially crack, although no problems had been detected during extensive flight testing of the Max jets, which began in January 2016.

On Monday, soon after the crash Boeing issued a statement that it would provide technical assistance to the accident investigation. “Boeing stands ready to provide technical assistance to the accident investigation. In accordance with international protocol, all inquiries about aviation accident investigations must be directed to the Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee,” the company said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Lion Air announced it was buying 50 Boeing 737 Max 10 jets for US$6.24 billion.

Lion, a budget airline, which has significantly expanded its operation in recent years, has been involved in a number of incidents in the past decade. Last year one of its Boeing jets collided with a Wings Air plane as it landed at Kualanamu airport in North Sumatra, although no one was injured.

In 2013, all 108 passengers and crew survived when a Lion Air plane missed the runway at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, landed in the sea and split in two.

In May 2016, two Lion Air planes collided at Soekarno-Hatta airport, while a month earlier an aircraft operated by Batik Air — part of the Lion Group — clipped a TransNusa plane.

In 2004, 24 people were killed when a Lion Air flight from Jakarta skidded off a rain-slicked runway after landing in Surakarta, Central Java.

Among passengers of the downed aircraft on Monday were government officials including 20 from the Finance Ministry.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said they were returning to their office in Pangkalpinang after either spending time with their families in Jakarta or attending the 72nd anniversary of Currency Day over the weekend.

One Indian national and an Italian national have been listed among the victims. The Indian was the flight’s 31-year-old captain Bhavye Suneja, who joined Lion Air in 2011 and had clocked 6,000 flight hours.

Later on Monday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo flew from Bali to meet with grieving family members of victims of the crash at Soekarno-Hatta.

“I have asked the Transportation Ministry to brief family members of the victims on an hourly basis,” Jokowi said.

— Riska Rahman, Marguerite Afra Sapiie and Kharishar Kahfi contribute to this report from Jakarta