(Image source from: USA Today)

The airspeed indicator of the Boeing Company 737 MAX plane that crashed earlier this week leaving 189 dead was damaged for its last four flights, investigators said.

Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) chief Soerjanto Tjahjono told reporters on Monday the news after perusing the data downloaded from the plane's flight data recorder.

He said he had consulted with Boeing and the United States authorities what action should be taken to prevent such accidents in the future. "We are formulating, with U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing, detailed inspections regarding the airspeed indicator," he said.

The airspeed indicator tells the airplane pilots how fast the plane is moving. Lion Air flight JT 610, carrying 189 people, crashed shortly after taking off from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

Indonesia has not officially requested fleet-wide checks on 737 MAX jets and none are planned pending more data, a person acquainted with the matter said, on condition of anonymity.

Irate relatives have demanded that recovery efforts be continued and wanted to know why the flight was permitted to fly.

Safety experts say it is too early to find the cause of the crash on Monday last week of the flight from Jakarta to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.

Authorities have yet to recover the jet's cockpit voice recorder from the sea floor, just northeast of Jakarta, where the plane crashed 13 minutes into its flight.

-Sowmya Sangam