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.

FMI: www.flyadamair.com, www.msc.navy.mil/inventory/ships.asp?ship=marysears&type=OceanographicSurveyShip