Jakarta (dpa) - Rescue workers have begun their search for an airplane with 102 people on board missing since Monday afternoon during bad weather in eastern Indonesia, officials and news report said Tuesday.

"There is still no new information yet about the missing plane. We haven't able to locate where the plane went down," said Fist Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, head of air force base in Makassar, the provincial of South Sulawesi.

Suyatno told Trans-TV private television that he feared bad weather would hamper the search operation for the missing plane, adding that heavy rains occurred since early Tuesday, along with strong winds.

He said a battalion of the air force's elite troops have joined with army soldiers and police officers to conduct the search.

Indonesian authorities said on Monday that a signal from its emergency locator beacon (ELB) indicated the plane was in the western Sulawesi district of Mamuju, about 1,350 kilometres northeast of Jakarta, or in Toraja district area of South Sulawesi.

The plane, a Boeing 737-400 of the Indonesian private low-cost airline Adam Air, left the East Javan capital Surabaya for Manado, the provincial capital of North Sulawesi, company officials said. The plane lost contact at about 3 pm, or an hour before it was scheduled to arrive at Manado's Sam Ratulangi airport at 4 pm.

The plane, flight number KI-574, was carrying 96 passengers including seven children and four infants, plus a crew of six, said Hartono of Adam Air's head of safety and security, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

Ichsan Tatang, director-general of air communications at the transport ministry, told reporters preliminary information from a Singaporean satellite as well as from other aircraft in the region said the plane sent out a distress signal in bad weather.

Tatang said the ELB signal indicated the plane was located at Mamuju, about 83 nautical miles northwest of Makassar.

Tatang said it was bad weather - heavy rains and strong winds - when the plane lost contact. He added that the plane, with 45,371 flight hours and 26,725 landings, was airworthy.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said on Monday that the plane has lost contact at an altitude of around 35,000 feet.

"We don't know yet exactly the cause behind the missing plane. The important things is to immediately conduct a search and efforts to rescue the passengers," Radjasa told Elshinta private radio.

He said he had contacted the head of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) for help, including search aircraft.

"We greatly hope that the plane made an emergency landing," he said. "Let's pray to God with the hope that we will be able rescue them immediately."

Adam Air began operations in Indonesia several years ago and most of its flights are domestic.

Last year, one of its aircraft lost all communication and navigation systems for four hours during a flight between Jakarta and Makassar in South Sulawesi, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. // © 2006 DPA


Publication date: 02 January 2007   

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