Safety

Indonesia’s efforts to locate an Adam Air Boeing 737-400 which vanished during a domestic flight yesterday have taken a chaotic turn after the carrier disclosed that rescuers had not, contrary to an earlier confirmation, found the wreck of the missing aircraft.

The bizarre development followed the airline’s disclosure that wreckage from the twin-jet had been located in a mountainous region near Rangoan in the west of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which itself came after reports citing government spokesmen said the wreckage had been found.

Flight KI574 had been operating between Surabaya and Manabo. It failed to arrive at its destination, prompting a search and rescue operation by Indonesian authorities.

Adam Air has relayed a public apology from the Indonesian transport minister for the fiasco and admits that its aircraft has “not yet been found”. The extraordinary twist follows earlier unconfirmed indications that there were survivors among the 102 passengers and crew on board.

The reason for the confusion is not clear although Adam Air stated, after disclosing the details of the apparent wreckage location, that communication links between the search teams and their command centre were poor.

There is no further firm information regarding the whereabouts of the aircraft, contact with which was lost about an hour after it departed Surabaya.