All efforts to find the Adam Air missing air plane over South Sulawesi since Monday have so far not yielded any results, Indonesian Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa said Wednesday.

 

 

The Indonesian Air Force has assigned a Boeing 737-200 and a Navy Nomad aircraft scouring the waters off Makassar, the Madjene region and a mountainous area in Tanatoraja district from Tuesday to Wednesday, but found no clues to the missing plane's whereabouts, Antara News agency quoted Radjasa as saying at Makassar's Hasanuddin airport.

 

Meanwhile, Indonesian Navy had also assigned two of its warships -- one based in Surabaya, East Java, and the other based in Ambon, Maluku -- to back up search and rescue efforts in waters off Madjene.

 

The Adam Air plane had 102 people on board when it lost contact with Hasanuddin airport's air control center on Monday on its way from Surabaya, East Java, to Manado, North Sulawesi.

 

The Air Force's Boeing 737-200 taking part in the search for the ill-fated airliner was on Wednesday unable to land at Hasanuddin airport due to bad weather and had to be diverted to Balikpapan airport in East Kalimantan.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)