Investigators remove parts from Lion Air Flight 610 that crashed into Java Sea, for further investigation at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. New details about the crashed Lion Air's jet previous flight have cast more doubt on the Indonesian airline's claim to have fixed technical problems as hundreds of personnel searched the sea a fifth day Friday for victims and the plane's fuselage. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
Investigators remove parts from Lion Air Flight 610 that crashed into Java Sea, for further investigation at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. New details about the crashed Lion Air's jet previous flight have cast more doubt on the Indonesian airline's claim to have fixed technical problems as hundreds of personnel searched the sea a fifth day Friday for victims and the plane's fuselage. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara) Credit: Binsar Bakkara

Jakarta, Indonesia — New details about the crashed Lion Air jet’s previous flight cast more doubt on the Indonesian airline’s claim to have fixed technical problems, as hundreds of personnel searched the sea for a fifth day on Friday for victims and the plane’s fuselage.

The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane plunged into the Java Sea early Monday, just minutes after taking off from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

Herson, head of the Bali-Nusa Tenggara Airport Authority, said the pilot on the plane’s previous flight on Sunday from Bali requested to return to the airport not long after takeoff but then reported the problem had been resolved. Several passengers have described the problem as a terrifying loss of altitude.

Lion Air, a budget carrier that is the biggest domestic airline in Indonesia, has said the unspecified problem was fixed after Sunday’s flight, but the fatal flight’s pilots also made a “return to base” request not long after takeoff.

Shortly after the request, the pilot contacted the control tower again and said the plane had run normally and would not return.