Mystery Surrounding Plane's Disappearance Continues

The UK is sending a specialized ship to join the US Navy's oceanographic survey ship, USNS Mary Sears, in the search for an Adam Air 737-400 missing since January 1. The British ship is said to be part of the country's military.

The Jakarta Post reports on January 23 the USNS Mary Sears detected two pieces of metal at a depth of over 6,000 feet that might be portions of the aircraft's fuselage.

An Elshinta radio station quoted a US official as saying, "The ship has detected two undersea metals. We hope this could be a significant clue to find Adam Air's jetliner."

Indonesia's national search and rescue (SAR) team chairman Bambang Karnoyudho told the Malaysian National News Agency, "Starting today, a British ship will help us search for the missing passenger aircraft in the Makassar Straits."

So far, SAR efforts have focused on the waters off the western coast of Sulawesi, one of the island nation's larger land masses. To date, searchers have found 193 pieces -- 154 of which have been positively identified as belonging to the missing jetliner -- but no clues as to what might have brought it down.

A Singaporean team from that country's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has gone home after a fruitless effort to locate the plane's voice and data recorders. The team brought specialized underwater equipment to home on the so-called "black box's" locator beacons, but they were unsuccessful.

Indonesian government restrictions on the length of any SAR effort have already been exceeded as the country struggles to understand what happened to the aircraft.

Meanwhile, Adam Air has pledged to pay roughly $55,000 in compensation -- over and above any insurance payment -- to the families of each passenger aboard the aircraft.

During a hearing before the country's house of representatives, Adam Air's president said, "The amount is apart from the insurance payment from Jasa Rahardja totaling Rp40 to Rp50 million per passenger. This is from us."

The payments are to go out as soon as government officials stop the search.

FMI: www.flyadamair.com