An Indian, Bhavye Suneja, captained the Indonesian Lion Air plane that crashed into the sea Friday with 198 passengers and crew on board. The flight, JT610, lost contact with air traffic controllers minutes after takeoff and is thought to have sunk.

Bhavye Suneja has worked with Lion Air since 2011, his LinkedIn profile says. He previously worked with Emirates as a trainee pilot. Lion Air said today that Suneja has 6,000 flight hours, and that his Indonesian co-pilot Harvino has more than 5,000.

Suneja, who is from Delhi, attended Ahlcon Public School in Mayur Vihar.

Flight JT610 was a Boeing 737 MAX 8 that was delivered in August and had 800 hours of flying time. It sunk in waters about 30 to 35 metres, north of the coast of Java island.

Investigators' top priority will be finding the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to help determine the cause, safety experts said.

The pilots had asked to turn back to base shortly before losing contact with air traffic control, according to a spokesman for Indonesia's air navigation authorities.