Search resumes for missing Indonesian plane

Rescuers expanded their search for a missing plane to the sea today, after senior Indonesian officials mistakenly said yesterday that the Boeing 737’s charred wreckage had been found along with a dozen survivors.

Relatives waiting for news about the 102 people aboard the Adam Air plane, which lost contact on Monday after sending two distress signals during a flight from Indonesia’s main island of Java to Sulawesi, broke down in tears after learning they had been misinformed.

“Oh, what is happening to us?” wailed Dorce Sundalangi, whose daughter was on the flight, after hearing the report that the wreckage had been found was just a rumour. “They had given us hope of seeing our beloved relatives … but it was false hope.”

Rescue teams yesterday spent more than 10 hours hiking through slippery forest paths in a mountainous region of Sulawesi’s western coast, but found nothing, prompting authorities to expand their search today to include the sea, said Bambang Karnoyudho, head of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

Three navy ships set sail soon after sunrise in the Makkasar Strait and five Air Force planes took to the skies, he said, searching for signs of wreckage in the water and in a large section of southern and western Sulawesi.

Visibility was good but there was no sign of Flight KI-574, said Air Force Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Mudjianto, whose team followed the ill-fated plane’s scheduled flight path to the site where its last distress signal was picked up.

An Associated Press Television News cameraman was aboard one military surveillance aircraft, which searched a roughly 300-square mile triangle of sea and land, stretching from Tanah Toraja in the east to coastal waters off Majane and Mamuju in the West.

“We flew over the area four times … but there was no sign of the plane,” Mudjianto said.

Karnoyudho, chief of the national search and rescue agency, said based on radar and satellite readings he thought it most likely that the plane had fallen into the sea.

“God willing, we can find it soon,” he said.

Relatives of the passengers were losing patience, however.

Yesterday, top Indonesian aviation, military and police officials – and the airline itself – said the plane had been found in a remote part of Sulawesi. They said that 90 people on board had perished, but that the remaining 12 may have survived.

Descriptions were vivid, with officials saying corpses and debris from the plane were scattered over forest and jagged cliffs – highlighting the often unreliable and chaotic nature of disaster relief efforts in the world’s largest archipelagic nation.

But later in the day, they said they had been wrong and no wreckage had been found.

Three of those aboard were American citizens, the US Embassy said. A US National Transportation Safety Board team was to arrive on Friday to offer assistance. It was unclear whether any other foreigners were on the plane.

Some of the relatives awaiting news about the missing were camped out at the Adam Air counter at the Manado airport – the plane’s destination – and others were in the southern Sulawesi city of Makassar, believed to be closer to where the plane went down.

“I don’t understand how the authorities could be so heartless and spread rumours without thinking of the suffering of those waiting for news of their loved ones,” said Ima Kulata, who was awaiting word about her cousin and two nieces.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said, crying after learning there may be no survivors after all. “How come they make such fools of us?”

Just over half of the Adam Air’s flight path was over the Java Sea, the Maluku Sea and other smaller bodies of water.

Adam Air is one of at least a dozen budget carriers that have emerged in the country since 1999, when the industry was deregulated. The rapid expansion has led to cheap flights to scores of destinations around the sprawling nation, but has raised some safety concerns, since maintenance on the leased planes is reportedly poor.

National aviation chief Ichsan Tatang said the plane involved in Monday’s disaster was 17 years old, had flown 45,371 hours and passed its last inspection on December 25.

Adam Air, which began operations in 2003, was founded by Agung Laksono, the speaker of Indonesia’s house of representatives.