JAKARTA, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Search teams on Thursday discovered a landing gear of the Indonesian Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea off western Indonesia on Monday.
The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet en route to the city of Pangkal Pinang with 189 people onboard was reported missing Monday morning, and was believed to have crashed 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta international airport.
Head of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Muhammad Syaugi said Thursday evening that a landing gear, several "victims" and other larger parts of the crashed aircraft, including some parts of the fuselage, were also found by the remotely operated underwater vehicle on the seabed.
"There are several victims whom we have seen. There were also a landing gear. It was two wheel and an axle, and an edge part of the body of the plane," he told a press conference.
Some 50 divers were involved in the search mission on the sea floor, about 500 meters northwest of the location where the pilot of the JT 610 aircraft last communicated with the air traffic control.
