Missing plane likely at bottom of sea, Indonesian officials say

Rescue crews in the Java Sea widened the search Monday for a missing AirAsia plane with 162 people aboard even as Indonesia authorities speculated the main wreckage was already at the bottom of the sea.

A second day of reconnaissance yielded little and hopes for survivors faded.

An Indonesian helicopter crew spotted only two oily patches. Search officials, however, said was unclear whether they were related to the Singapore-bound aircraft — whose last air traffic contact Sunday was a request by the pilot to climb to 38,000 feet after encountering rough weather.

The sudden disappearance and frustrating maritime search is closely familiar to Malaysia Airlines jetliner last contacted over the Indian Ocean in March. That plane, with 239 people on board, is still lost.

Indonesian authorities called their belief that the jet plunged to the seabed a “preliminary suspicion.” National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo at a press conference said the theory was based on the plane’s last coordinates and the estimated crash position.

But Soelistyo said Indonesia lacks the equipment needed to find and retrieve a plane from such depths and has reached out to other countries for help, including the United States, Britain and France.

Source: MSN NEWS