Search for plane intensifies

2007-01-17 13:18

Jakarta - New equipment being installed on a US navy ocean survey ship should help determine whether objects found in deep waters are the wreckage of a missing Indonesian plane, an Indonesian admiral said on Wednesday.

The USNS Mary Sears was being equipped with a side-scan sonar, to be towed in a submersible drone, and a hydrophone capable of detecting ultrasonic signals transmitted by a locator beacon in the plane's "black box" flight recorder, First Admiral Gatot Sudiyanto said.

The equipment was flown in to be fitted to the Mary Sears, which is now docked in Makassar, the main city in southern Sulawesi.

"It is hoped that with this new equipment, the identification of the targets found under the sea will become clear, considering that the side-scan sonar that was sent can dive to a depth of some 2 000 metres," Sudiyanto said in an interview on ElShinta radio.

He said the new hydrophone was capable of detecting the 37.5 kilohertz signal transmitted by the locator beacon, while previous equipment could only receive up to 33 kilohertz.

Mounting the sonar in the submersible drone would allow it to get close to the objects on the sea bed and identify them.

He said it would be directed towards several objects already identified by navy ships which have been scanning the seabed off the western coast of Sulawesi for more than a week.

Large metal objects have been detected on the sea bed in three areas off the coast of Mamuju.

The admiral said the drone would also be directed to a new site off Majene, 90km south of Mamuju, where a large object had been detected "floating" at a depth of some 1 800 metres.

The Adam Air plane was carrying 102 passengers and crew when it went missing halfway through its flight from Surabaya on the central island of Java to Manado on Sulawesi on January 1.

- AFP