AirAsia plane search: Objects spotted in Indonesian waters
Jakarta, Dec 30: Several objects suspected of being parts of the missing AirAsia passenger plane were spotted in Indonesian waters Tuesday.
The Airbus A320-200 with 162 on board, disappeared from the radar screen 42 minutes after it took off from Surabaya in Indonesia's East Java province Sunday.
The objects were found around 190 km away from Pangkalan Bun of Central Kalimatan on the Borneo island, an Air Force official said.
"In the area, several objects with colours of orange, white, brown and black have been spotted. And they are small," Xinhua quoted the official as saying.
A search team has been sent to the scene to verify the latest findings, the official added.
Earlier
in
the
day,
smoke
was
also
spotted
in
Long
island,
one
of
the
thousands
that
make
up
the
Indonesian
archipelago.
The
search
has
expanded
to
land
areas,
with
helicopters
beginning
the
search
in
Kalimantan
island
as
well
as
other
islands
in
the
area.
The number of areas to be scoured has increased to 13 from seven, covering some 60,000 square nautical miles, he said. So far, the search has been focused on Java Sea, between the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.
Besides Indonesia and Singapore, US, Malaysia and Australia have also joined the search and rescue operations.
IANS