Print

Mail

wiki links

Indonesians still looking for downed plane

Indonesia's transportation minister said yesterday that rescuers had not found the wreckage of an Indonesian jetliner more than 24 hours after it disappeared during stormy weather.

Earlier aviation officials had reported that 90 bodies were scattered at the crash site and that a dozen people may have survived.

"The search and rescue team is still looking for the location," Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa told Elshinta radio, insisting that earlier reports were based on rumors from villagers that were passed on to local officials.

"It has not yet been found," Hatta said.

"The location has not been found. We apologize that the news that we conveyed was not true," said First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, commander of Hasanuddin Air Base in Makassar.

"We found nothing when we arrived at the location," Suyanto added.

The Adam Air plane lost contact with air traffic control on Monday about an hour before it was due to land in Manado in North Sulawesi, the transport ministry said.

There were 96 passengers and six crew on board the plane.

A copy of the plane's manifest showed three passengers as non-Indonesians. The US embassy in Jakarta said they were US citizens.

The plane went missing just two days after a ferry sank in bad weather off Java, leaving some 400 people missing. At least 200 people were saved and rescuers were still finding survivors yesterday.

Suyanto had earlier told Radio Elshinta that an air force plane had spotted the wreckage of the Boeing 737-400, and an Adam Air spokesman said that 12 people had survived and would be evacuated.

Teams suspended the search last night as darkness fell and said they would continue at dawn today and were considering widening their efforts to include the sea.

Searchers face bad weather conditions and rough, jungled terrain in their hunt.

A spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had issued a statement in Jakarta, shortly before news broke that the plane had not been found, saying the president wanted a full investigation into the accident.

Hundreds of people gathered yesterday at Manado airport, the aircraft's destination. Some collapsed when they heard reports that 90 people were killed. Others angrily banged on the door of the Adam Air office, demanding information, witnesses said.
This story has been viewed 1975 times.