As of Sunday a total of 105 body bags, few containing intact remains, had been recovered and handed to police for forensic identification, yet only seven victims had been so far identified.
“I’m sure the total will increase,” Mr Syaugi said.
The agency is prioritising recovering human remains and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), the second black box, from the wrecked near-new Boeing Co 737 MAX that smashed into the sea early on Monday, 13 minutes after it took off from Jakarta.
Divers have been honing in on ping signals in their search for the second box, as investigators try to get data from a partly damaged flight data recorder recovered on Thursday.
The device is thought to be around 50 metres from the main search area, where the water is only 30m deep, but ocean currents and mud on the sea bed that is more than one-metre deep have complicated search efforts.
The pilot of Lion Air flight JT610 had asked for, and received, permission to turn back to Jakarta, it remains a puzzle what exactly went wrong.
