The plane, carrying 56 passengers and six crew members, lost contact with air traffic controllers after taking off from Jakarta heading towards Pontianak in West Kalimantan.
While search and rescue operations are still ongoing, there is little prospect of finding survivors. The focus now is on recovering the bodies of victims.
Authorities say they have detected the locations for the Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder -- which are known as black boxes, and navy divers are closing in on retrieving them.
READ: Indonesia hopes to retrieve black boxes of crashed jet from Java Sea
WHAT HAPPENED?
- The aircraft took off at 2:36 pm local time and climbed to reach 3,300 metres (10,900ft) within four minutes.
- It then began a steep descent and stopped transmitting data 21 seconds later.
- According to the head of national search and rescue agency Air Marshal Bagus Puruhito, no distress signal was received from the aircraft.
- The aircraft is believed to have dropped more than 3,000m (10,000ft) in less than a minute.
- Witnesses said they saw and heard at least one explosion.
- Authorities said signals from the boxes containing the cockpit voice and flight data recorders were detected between Lancang and Laki islands in the Thousand Island chain just north of Jakarta's coast.
- The search and rescue operations are still ongoing, which includes dozens of helicopters, 53 navy ships and 20 boats and 2,600 rescue personnel. Parts of the plane have been found in the water at a depth of 23 meters.
- Twenty-six bags, containing remains of victims, pieces of clothing and aircraft debris were located and handed over to the Jakarta-based disaster victim investigation unit for identification.
WHAT NOW?
Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee previously said the US National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing would be involved in the investigation.
In a statement, Boeing said: "We are in contact with our airline customer and stand ready to support them during this difficult time."
The plane was a 26-year-old Boeing 737-500, much older than Boeing’s problem-plagued 737 MAX model.
The incident is the first major air crash in Indonesia since 189 passengers and crew were killed in 2018 when a Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX also plunged into the Java Sea soon after take-off from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta international airport.
