Missing jet: Objects found

2007-01-08 12:09

Makassar, Indonesia - Indonesian ships searching for a missing airliner have found large metal objects on the sea bed and are awaiting the arrival of a US Navy vessel which may be able to identify them, an admiral said on Monday.

The Adam Air plane with 96 passengers, including an American and his two daughters, and six crew vanished on New Year's Day halfway through a flight between the central island of Java and the island of Sulawesi to the northeast.

The search is focused on the west of Sulawesi and the surrounding waters, an area covering tens of thousands of square kilometres.

A navy ship combing the seas southwest of Mamuju on the west coast had found large metal objects on the sea bed, First Admiral Gatot Subyanto told AFP.

"There were large metal objects at three different points. The thing is, what these metal objects are, we cannot say. We do not have the necessary equipment," said Subyanto, who is commander of the naval base at Makassar, south Sulawesi.

He said the objects had been discovered on Thursday and Friday but declined to specify their exact locations.

Six navy ships, some equipped with sonar, are combing the Makassar Strait along a 320km stretch of Sulawesi's western coast.

The navy could locate the objects, but lacked equipment capable of identifying them at depths of between 500 and 1 800 metres, the admiral said.

"A US navy ship is due to arrive in the area tomorrow, and we will direct them to the site," he said separately on ElShinta radio.

A US Navy oceanographic survey vessel, the USNS Mary Sears, was due to join the search on Tuesday. The 100m ship is capable of deep ocean surveys.

Reinforcing the search effort

Bad weather and the rugged terrain of the mountainous, rainforest-clad island have hampered the search.

On top of weather and geography, the search has been marred by a disaster in communications which embarrassed the government.

Relatives of the passengers were left distraught and angry after reports by officials last Tuesday that the wreckage and some survivors had been found on a remote mountain in West Sulawesi province turned out to be false.

Four more helicopters were due to arrive later on Monday to reinforce the search effort, said First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto.

"For today (Monday), the search continues to be focused in areas that have already been combed before. There is no extension of the search, but it is now more detailed," Suyanto told reporters in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi where the search is being co-ordinated.

The Adam Air plane vanished off radar screens on January 1 halfway through a flight from Surabaya, on Java, to Manado on the northeast tip of Sulawesi.

A massive air, land and sea search has involved ships, planes, about 2 700 police, air force, army and search and rescue personnel.

Officials have said it was not unknown for small aircraft to disappear for years without being found, although there were no cases of a plane as large as this Boeing going missing.

Meanwhile, some 300 personnel of the Hasanuddin Air Base held morning prayers in a hangar, with the officiating imam airing hopes that all the passengers and crew would be found quickly safe and sound.

Vice President Yusuf Kalla said the search would continue, whatever the cost.

- AFP