Jakarta – A “black box” recorder from Lion Air flight JT 610 has been found by divers off the coast of Indonesia.

The plane, carrying 189 people, crashed soon after taking off from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, on Monday.

It plummeted into the Java Sea – no survivors have been found, nor has the body of the Boeing 737.

There is as yet no indication of what caused the crash but the aircraft is believed to have experienced technical problems on its previous flight.

The plane was making a one-hour journey to the western city of Pangkal Pinang when it went down.

The pilot had asked air traffic control for permission to turn back to the airport but then contact was lost.

Which recorder was found?

Initial reports said the plane’s flight data recorder had been found but a transport safety official quoted by Reuters news agency said later it was unclear whether the damaged device was the flight data unit or the cockpit voice recorder.

“Tonight we will move as quickly as possible to download what is in this black box,” Haryo Satmiko, deputy chief of Indonesia’s transportation safety committee, told journalists.

It could take up to six months to analyze data from the black boxes, officials from Indonesia’s transportation safety committee have said.

Mr Satmiko pointed to the device’s poor condition as evidence of the “extraordinary impact” of the crash.

A diver identified as Hendra said the box had been buried in debris on the floor of the Java Sea.

Another official, Muhammad Syaugi, said part of the plane’s landing gear had been found, AFP news agency reports.

“We have found bigger parts of the plane than we have seen in previous days,” he added. (BBC)