Body of Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja who captained ill-fated Indonesian plane identified

NEW DELHI: Body of Indian pilot Bhavye Suneja who captained the ill-fated Indonesian plane that crashed into the sea on October 29 has been identified.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that Suneja's body has been identified and said that it will be handed over to the family. "Indonesian authorities have confirmed identification of the body of Capt. Bhavya Suneja. The remains will be handed over to the family in the presence of @IndianEmbJkt today. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family," she tweeted.

The Lion Air flight, with 188 passengers and crew on board, crashed into the sea off Indonesia's island of Java, minutes after taking off from Jakarta Soekarno Hatta International Airport.

Captain Suneja was a resident of Mayur Vihar in Delhi. The 31-year-old completed his studies at Ahlcon Public School in Mayur Vihar and received his flying licence in 2009. Bhavye married in 2016 and was based in Jakarta with his wife Garima Sethi.

The 31-year-old was flying the Lion Air flight JT610 which lost contact with ground officials, 13 minutes after taking off from an airport in Indonesia, and crashed into the Java Sea. He had an experience of 6,000 flight hours and the co-pilot more than 5,000 flight hours, the airline said in a statement.

Earlier in November, the investigators of Lion Air flight confirmed that the airspeed indicator had malfunctioned during its last four flights. Local media in Indonesia also reported that the plane had faced technical problems during its previous flight from Denpasar to Jakarta which was resolved before its take off.