Lion aeroplane had airspeed problem on flight prior to crash: official

The Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane that crashed with 189 people on board on Monday had technical problems on its previous flight, including "unreliable airspeed", an official of Indonesia's national transportation safety committee said on Tuesday.

"There were technical issues, one of them was indeed unreliable airspeed," committee deputy chief Haryo Satmiko told a news conference, referring to problems with the plane on a flight from Denpasar, Bali, to Jakarta on Sunday evening.

"The suspected cause of the accident is still being investigated and it is making us all curious what could have caused it," he said.

He said the committee has a recording of the conversation between the pilot of JT610 before it crashed and the control tower at Jakarta, as well as input from the public, including comments on social media.

"We are also asking for information from the last pilot who flew from Denpasar to Jakarta, but we have not met the technician," he added, referring to the technician who handled the aircraft between the two flights.