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FILE - In this May 12, 2012 file photo, a Lion Air passenger jet is parked on the tarmac at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. Indonesia's Lion Air said Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, it has lost contact with a passenger jet flying from Jakarta to an island off Sumatra. (AP Photo/Trisnadi, File)

Associated Press

Lion Air, the airline whose plane crashed early Monday while traveling from Jakarta to an island off Indonesia’s Sumatra with 188 people on board, is a fast-growing low cost airline with a mixed safety record.

The carrier was founded in 1999 to offer air travel access to everyone and offers more than 600 flights a day both internationally and within the archipelago’s more than 17,000 islands.

It’s the biggest airline in the country in terms of passenger numbers. It mostly flies Boeing 737s.

Before Monday’s The airline had not reported a fatal crash since 2004, when 25 people died when the DC-9 they were on crashed amid heavy rain at Solo City in central Java.

The European Union banned the airline from flying to EU member locations from July 2007 until June 2016.

FILE - In this May 12, 2012 file photo, a Lion Air passenger jet takes off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. Indonesia's Lion Air said Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, it has lost contact with a passenger jet flying from Jakarta to an island off Sumatra. (AP Photo/Trisnadi, File)