Lion Air director removed after Indonesia plane crash

The country's transport minister removed him and several technicians.

JAKARTA: Indonesia's transport minister on Wednesday removed Lion Air's technical director and several of its technicians after the crash of one of its jets with 189 people on board, the Antara news agency
reported on Wednesday.



"Today we dismiss (the director) from his position and his
duty," Budi Karya Sumadi said, citing the accident on Monday as
the reason. He said technicians were also dismissed. It was not clear whether the removal was permanent or temporary.

Lion Air's chief executive, Edward Sirait, told Reuters he
had not heard of the minister's order.

A brand new Indonesian Lion Air plane carrying 189 passengers and crew crashed into the sea Monday, officials said, moments after it had asked to be allowed to return to Jakarta.

“My prediction is that nobody survived because the victims that we found, their bodies were no longer intact and it’s been hours so it is likely 189 people have died,” search and rescue agency operational director Bambang Suryo Aji told reporters.



The Boeing-737 MAX, which went into service just months ago,  vanished from radar 13 minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital, plunging into the Java Sea. Video footage apparently filmed at the scene of the crash showed a slick of fuel on the surface of the water.