A witness on the ground observing the arrival of the aircraft from the terminal building of Denpasar Airport said, that he could see the aircraft descend towards the aerodrome at a normal rate of descent, but only realised something had gone wrong with the approach when the aircraft hit the waters instead of touching down on the runway. There was no rain or other obstruction of visibility around.
Looking more and more like bufoonery!
This is not what everyone else (reliable) here in Bali say. ATC did not see the aircraft on final and impacting the water due to a very localized rainshower . The crew of the Garuda at the holding position 09 (cleared to line up behind ) lost sight of it in the rain on APP and they did report the accident to ATC .
Talking to people around here in Bali. the picture #4 on the AvHerald site , mentioned earlier gives a good clue of what everyone here think happened.
The whole accident is also apparently caught on an airport surveillance video camera.
Lion air top management is treating the Capt as a Hero and are looking to get him an award from Boeing. Some others say the publication of the CVR might alter those plans slightly . We'll see.