Indonesia plane search narrows after debris found
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday January 12, 8:30 PM Reuters
*Indonesia plane search narrows after debris found*
By Achmad Sukarsono
MAKASSAR, Indonesia (Reuters) - Police and the military have narrowed
their search to focus on a beach area and surrounding waters where plane
wreckage from a missing Indonesian airliner has been found, the head of
the search said on Friday.
Pieces of the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 that vanished from radar screens
on January 1 with 102 people aboard were found in the past few days at
roughly the same location, floating in the sea or washed up on beaches.
The biggest part found so far appeared to be the tail stabiliser, found
snarled in a fisherman's net off Lojie Beach on the west coast of
Sulawesi island on Tuesday, but not immediately reported to authorities
and only announced on Thursday.
The fisherman who made the discovery had initially taken the piece home
and kept it under his bed, the Jakarta Post reported.
A life vest, food trays and interior material have also been recovered
by residents, military and police in the sea and on the shore around the
seaside town of Pare Pare, 8 km (5 miles) north of Lojie Beach.
"Search teams in the mountains have been pulled back and we have built
new posts in Pare Pare. Marines are helping police and army scour
beaches there," said First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, who is coordinating
the search.
Makassar is about 1,400 km (870 miles) northeast of Jakarta. Pare Pare
is a two-hour drive north from Makassar. All are on Sulawesi's west coast.
Suyanto, who commands the air base in Makassar, Sulawesi's largest city,
told reporters later that flotsam and other items that did not belong to
the doomed plane were being sifted out and the search would go on until
something major was found.
More than three dozens items identified as from the plane were displayed
at the air base.
AGONY FOR RELATIVES
Suyanto suggested the plane had crashed into the sea off Majene,
northwest of Pare Pare, adding he believed it had disintegrated into
small pieces. He declined to say whether this could have happened before
or after it hit the water.
Despite the possibility that the Boeing had broken up, Indonesian navy
vessels assisted by a U.S. oceanographic ship were still trying to
locate its fuselage, which could still house the black box that could
provide clues to explain the disaster.
So far no bodies confirmed as the missing passengers have been found.
Suyanto said that, considering that the biggest part of the plane found
so far was just 1 metre (3 feet) long, a body was unlikely to have
survived the disaster in one piece.
The 17-year-old plane was heading from Surabaya in East Java to Manado
in northern Sulawesi when it vanished in bad weather on New Year's Day.
The plane made no distress call, although the pilot had reported
concerns over crosswinds.
A search is also continuing for a ferry that capsized with more than 600
aboard and sank off Java three days before the plane vanished. Tony
Syaiful, spokesman for the Eastern Fleet, said that divers were being
sent to look at an area off Lasem.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had issued a decree to set up a task
force to examine the transport system, spokesman Andi Mallarangeng was
quoted by Antara news agency as saying.
Hardi Susilo, the head of a parliamentary team looking into the crash,
told reporters that they were focussing on whether the nation's boom in
budget air travel is compromising safety.
(Additional reporting by Mita Valina Liem and Ahmad Pathoni in Jakarta)