Indonesia's Adam Air yesterday promised to give 500 million rupiah (US$55,555) compensation to each passenger of its plane, which has disappeared since January 1 when it was on its way from East Java's capital of Surabaya to North Sulawesi's capital of Manado.

 

The plane has disappeared together with its 92 passengers and 10 crew members.

 

Adam Air President Director Adam Aditya Suherman said that the compensation was not included money to be received by relatives of the passengers from state-owned insurance company PT Jasa Raharja.

 

"All passengers have been registered in the insurance company. But for our sympathy, we will also give 500 million rupiah compensation for each of them," he told House of Representatives' Commission V for transportation affairs.

 

Search and rescue team has been able to collect dozens of goods believed coming from Adam Air plane, but it so far failed to locate the main body of the ill-fated plane.

 

The search for Adam Air jetliner which remains missing since New Year's day should be completed within a certain time limit but it has yet to be decided when the dead-line is, Antara news agency quoted Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla as saying yesterday.

 

"The search for the missing plane certainly has a dead-line. It is impossible to do the search continuously for a year," the vice president said.

 

But he did not mention exactly when the search would be ended.

 

According to the existing rule, the search for the missing airliner should have been ended but as the concession, the government allowed the National Search and Rescue Board (Basarnas) to continue its efforts to locate the ill-fated plane following the findings of its parts.

 

"The most important thing now is to find the location where the plane disappeared," Kalla said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2007)