Missing AirAsia Flight: Australian plane spots 'objects' in search for plane
The sighting comes as officials say the jet carrying 162 people is likely to be at the bottom of the sea.
The AirAsia Airbus A320-200, which had asked to divert due to safety fears amid stormy conditions before it lost contact with air traffic control yesterday, was on its way from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore.
Flight QZ8501 may have crashed and could now be at the bottom of the Java sea, Henry Bambang Soelistyo of the National Search and Rescue said.
‘Based on the co-ordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea,’ he told a press conference.
Jakarta’s Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto later added that an Australian Orion aircraft had detected suspicious objects near Nangka island, about 700 miles from the location where the plane lost contact.
‘However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane,’ Putranto added. ‘We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions.’
A British national, named as Chi Man Choi, according to reports of the passenger manifest in the Indonesian media, is among those on board the plane.
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| Relatives and next-of-kin of passengers on the AirAsia flight QZ8501 wait for the latest news on the search |
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| This map shows where the search and rescue planes and boats will arrive from |
He is believed to hold a British passport but live in Singapore with his family.
The search for the missing plane, which had 155 passengers, and seven crew on board, resumed today, after being suspended due to poor weather conditions.
Twelve navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships are searching an area of east and south-east Belitung island and nearby waters, First Admiral Sigit Setiayana of the Naval Aviation Centre Commander at the Surabaya air force base said.
He said visibility for the search is good.
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