Families Of Those Missing Confront VP
Indonesia deployed more
troops and helicopters to join the search of an Indonesian Boeing
737-400 that vanished from radar screens January 1, while a US
military aircraft arrived at a Makassar air base to assist. There
were 102 people, including three Americans, aboard the 17-year old
plane.
Another 700 troops and four additional helicopters are being
used to look for the plane operated by Indonesian budget airline
Adam Air, said military spokesman Captain Mulyadi in Makassar on
Sulawesi island, where search efforts are being
coordinated.
US transport safety officials arrived in Sulawesi on Saturday
and were working with Indonesian regulators investigating the
disappearance. A US oceanographic survey ship with sonar
capability, and the ability to detect metal under the sea, USNS
Mary Sears, will arrive Tuesday to join search operations, the
chief of the air base in Makassar, Eddy Suyanto, said.
"So far the result is nil. Tomorrow we will narrow our search in
areas that we have covered," he said. Nearly 2,900 soldiers and
police have been looking for the airliner along with at least four
Indonesian military planes, a Singapore Air Force Fokker-50 and a
helicopter.
The intensified search comes a day after relatives confronted
the Indonesian vice president and called for more to be
done.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla told relatives waiting in Makassar
the government would spare no effort in its search for the missing
plane, but they called for Indonesia to accept more help from
abroad, said Reuters.
"I won't go home until they find the plane," Hendra Tuna, whose
niece and her husband were among the passengers, said Sunday. "This
uncertainty makes us confused. Sometimes I still hold out hope but
I am resigned to God's will. I hope they find it soon so I can take
my niece and nephew home in whatever condition they are."
The search initially concentrated on areas of western Sulawesi,
where the last emergency signal was received, but expanded to the
north and east of the island Friday.
"There is optimism but there is no guarantee," Mulyadi said,
when asked about the chances of finding the plane.
The pilot made no
distress call from the plane, which took off from Surabaya on
Java island on Monday for Manado, the provincial capital of North
Sulawesi.
The only clue to where the stricken plane might have gone down
came when a signal from its emergency locator beacon was detected
by a Singapore satellite.
In his last conversation with Makassar air traffic control, the
pilot said he had encountered crosswinds, officials said. Radar
continued to track the flight for some time after that.
Adam Air Flight KI-574 was on a two-hour flight from Indonesia's
main island of Java to Manado. Reports say the aircraft's last
inspection was on Dec. 25, 2006, and that the plane had flown
45,371 hours.
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