Indonesian authorities Wednesday deployed ships and aircraft to resume searching for a passenger plane that went missing Monday with 102 people onboard, after confirmation that initial reports of finding the wreckage turned out to be false.

 

The Navy was involved in the search over possibility that the Boeing 737-400 belonging to low-cost carrier Adam Air might have fallen to the sea.

 

Three Cassa planes were deployed to comb the coastal areas along Sulawesi island where the ill-fated plane last made contact with airport controllers, a spokesman with the naval base in East Java was quoted by the national Antara news agency as saying.

 

"There was a possibility that the plane had crashed into the sea," said Lie. Col. Toni Syaiful.

 

From the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, the Air Force sent a Boeing 737-200 equipped with radar and tracking equipment to search above the coastal areas.

 

The Adam Air plane was on its two-hour journey from Surabaya in East Java to Manado in North Sulawesi when it disappeared from the radar screen.

 

Authorities said Tuesday morning the wreckage of the plane was found in the mountainous area in West Sulawesi, adding that 90 people were killed and 12 others survived the accident.

 

In the evening, an embarrassed Minister of Transportation Hatta Rajasa made an admission that the stories of the wreckage and the survivors were incorrect.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)