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MAJENE, Indonesia - Indonesia Friday shifted the search for a missing passenger jet with 102 people on board after air traffic control reported detecting a signal from the aircraft's emergency locator beacon.
The Adam Air Boeing 737-400, with 96 passengers and six crew, vanished from radar screens Monday halfway through a flight from Surabaya, on central Java island, to Manado, on the northeast tip of Sulawesi island.
The search has been concentrated on the sea off Majene and Mamuju in West Sulawesi and areas inland based on coordinates from distress signals from the plane and its last known position.
Troops, police, villagers and volunteers Friday headed back into the jungle-covered hills near Majene while another search and team in dinghies was scouring the seas close to the shore to search for any bits of the missing plane.
But the main focus has shifted to areas south of Manado, the plane's original destination, after Manado's Sam Ratulangi Airport reported detecting a signal from the plane.
The signal was detected on Monday around the coastal village of Nuangan in Bolaang Mongondow district, some 110 kilometres (68 miles) southwest of Manado but only reported on Thursday.
"We have received a new lead based on the emergency locator beacon aircraft (ELBA), which was detected by the air traffic control at Sam Ratalungi," Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, commander of the Hasanuddin Air Base at Makassar in South Sulawesi, was quoted as saying in the Republika newspaper.
Suyanto is also the official spokesman for the search and rescue team.
He said the signal was detected when the plane disappeared from radar but the airport only reported it on Thursday. It was not clear why there was such a long delay.
"We have also searched the southern part of Manado by air force Boeing 737-200 plane but we did not find anything," Suyanto said.
The new search area, around Manado, in North Sulawesi, is some 750 kilometres northeast of the original search zones in the seas and hills of West Sulawesi.
Reports by officials Tuesday that the wreckage and some survivors had been found on a remote jungle-covered mountain near the town of Polewali in West Sulawesi turned out to be false after rescue teams combed the area.
Police Thursday also sent a helicopter and ground search team to check a woman's report of seeing an aircraft flying low in the area.
Bad weather and the rugged landscape of the mountainous island have been hampering the search for the plane.
A helicopter was forced by poor weather conditions to make an emergency landing Thursday, a day after a plane did the same.
Aircraft were combing the search area and four navy warships carrying divers were also using sonar to try to detect any plane wreckage underwater.
"If the plane sank in the sea we will rely on the naval vessels to find it," the official Antara news agency quoted Suyanto as saying.
Singapore and the United States are also helping with the search.
"Singapore has sent a Fokker-50 complete with search and rescue equipment. The US has assisted us with satellite imagery and will soon send mobilisation equipment," Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said Thursday.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the setting up of a special team to evaluate the country's transport systems following the latest deadly air and sea disasters.
Air and marine accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation stretching over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles). - AFP/ir
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