Passenger Killed in Lion Air Disaster Sent Selfie to New Wife Minutes Before Crash: Reports

A 22-year-old Indonesian man sent a selfie photo to his wife just before the doomed Lion Air plane took off over the weekend.

Deryl Fida Febrianto sent the photo at 6:01 a.m. shortly before flight JT-610, which had 189 passengers and crew on board, departed Jakarta and dropped 5,000 feet into the Java Sea near Indonesia.

Febrianto is seen wearing a green mask and looking into the camera, according to local news outlets. This plane was reportedly heading back to Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Jakarta, but it crashed en route.

Febrianto and his wife, Lutfinani Eka Putri, 23, were married for two weeks. He was on his way to work on a cruise ship, the Daily Mail reported.

On Oct. 29, Indonesian officials painted a grim picture, saying there were likely no survivors.

“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,” operation director Bambang Suryo Aji said, Sky News reported.

Search and rescue workers, meanwhile, described a bleak scene.

A Lion Air Boeing 737-800 plane prepares to land. Rosland Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

“We have found flakes from the plane and also parts of bodies from passengers, which we handed over to the medical team,” Agus Nugroho, one of the rescue team members, told Sky News. “We will keep searching for the main body of the plane.”

The pilot had asked to return to base after the plane took off from Jakarta and lost contact with ground staff after about 13 minutes, Reuters reported. “An RTB was requested and had been approved but we’re still trying to figure out the reason,” Soerjanto Tjahjono, head of Indonesia’s transport safety committee, told the news outlet. “We hope the black box is not far from the main wreckage so it can be found soon,” he said, making reference to the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder.

Meanwhile, rescue workers have recovered six bodies from the ocean, and officials said workers found debris appearing to be the plane’s tail, CNN reported.

Search and rescue crews said the plane crashed into waters between 100 to 115 feet deep, according to The Associated Press.

“Indeed there were reports about a technical problem, and the technical problem has been resolved in accordance with the procedures released by the plane manufacturer,” Lion Air president-director Edward Sirait told AP. “I did not know exactly but let it be investigated by the authorities.”

The accident involving a new plane has stunned Indonesia, and President Joko Widodo ordered the transport safety commission to investigate. He urged Indonesians to “keep on praying” as rescuers search for victims, according to The Associated Press.

Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani was also reportedly seeking information about 20 ministry staff who were on the flight after attending a ministry event in Jakarta. Photos circulating online showed the distraught minister trying to comfort stunned colleagues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.