Fears for 102 After Jet Disappears in Storms ; INTERNATIONAL

An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people disappeared in stormy weather yesterday, and rescue teams were sent to search an area where military aviation officials feared the Boeing 737-400 aircraft may have crashed.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said a radio communication was picked up over central Sulawesi, a major island in the Indonesian archipelago about 470 miles from the Adam Air flight’s destination. Emergency crews were on their way to search for survivors.

It was not known if the aircraft disappeared over sea or land, but the Navy was contacted about a possible sea rescue operation.

Eddy Suyanto, military airport chief in South Sulawesi, said the final transmissions indicated “a big chance it had an accident or a crash.”

Search parties comprising an aeroplane and five helicopters would set out to two possible locations at dawn tomorrow, he said.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with flight KI-574 while it was flying at 35,000 feet from Indonesia’s main island of Java to Sulawesi. It was still missing more than eight hours after its scheduled arrival.

The 17-year-old plane – on a two-hour flight from East Java to Manado, on Sulawesi’s northern tip – carried six crew and 96 passengers, including 11 children.

National aviation chief Ichsan Tatang refused to speculate about the cause of the incident because the plane was in good condition, but stressed that it was flying in “very bad weather”.

In the North Sulawesi capital Manado, hundreds of people gathered at the airport seeking information about their missing relatives.

Several navy officers were also believed to have been on board.

Weeks of seasonal rains and high winds in Indonesia have caused several deadly floods, landslides and maritime accidents, including the sinking of a ferry in the Java Sea on Friday that left dozens dead and some 400 still missing. An Indonesian air traffic controller, Bhabr, told Metro TV the plane may have run out of fuel because, if still airborne, it would be “over its (fuel) limit”.

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