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MAKASSAR, Indonesia : Search and rescue teams have not found the wreckage of a plane carrying 102 people which was reported to have crashed into a mountain on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, the regional military commander said Tuesday, contradicting earlier reports.
Major General Arif Budi Sampurno told MetroTV that after checking the reported location they had not found any plane wreck.
"News from the village head reporting 12 survivors was also not true, the village head said that he never made that report," said Sampurno, whose area of command includes Sulawesi island.
Reports early Tuesday said the crash site had been identified from an aerial photograph and that local residents had reported finding bodies and survivors in the jungle of West Sulawesi.
Search and rescue teams were dispatched to the area but found no sign of a plane wreck, Sampurno said.
"The local commander, the police chief and the governor went to the location and they found nothing, so earlier reports about the location, number of survivors are all untrue. We don't know where that information originates from," he told AFP.
The Adam Air plane with 96 passengers, including three Americans, and six crew on board vanished from air traffic control radar screens Monday.
The Boeing 737-400 had sent distress signals an hour after taking off from Java island en route to Sulawesi.
The missing jet was carrying 85 adult passengers, 11 children, including four babies, and six crew when it crashed.
"There are three foreign citizens, all American from one family," Adam Air spokesman Ali told AFP, naming them as Scott Jackson and daughters Stephanie and Lindsay.
The Adam Air plane took off Monday at 12:59 pm (0559 GMT) from Surabaya on Java bound for Manado in northeast Sulawesi.
The Surabaya airport duty manager said there were no technical problems with the plane when it took off.
Adam Air officials said the 17-year-old aircraft was last inspected on December 25.
It is not yet known what occurred but the area has been hit by bad weather, with high winds since last weekend.
Aircraft accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation stretching over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles).
Public and private Indonesian airlines have been repeatedly criticised over their poor safety records, repeated delays and bad management.
Privately owned Adam Air began operations in 2003 and serves mainly domestic routes. Singapore and Malaysia's Penang are its only international destinations.
The company is a leading low-cost carrier in the competitive Indonesian market, marketing itself as a "boutique airline" placed between traditional budget firms and regular airlines.
It was the second transport disaster in Indonesia within a few days.
Late Friday a ferry carrying 600 people sank off Java in an accident blamed on bad weather. - AFP/ms
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