Air Transport

Adam Air 737 search hampered by weather

By David Learmount

The Adam Air Boeing 737-400 that crashed on an Indonesian domestic service on 1 January was beyond radar range when contact was lost, so the search for wreckage has had to cover the sea near the island of Sulawesi as well as forested areas onshore. Rescue teams said late last week that they were receiving no signals from the aircraft's emergency locator beacon.

The aircraft crashed from cruising altitude in an area of extensive severe convective weather activity.

The 18-year-old aircraft (PK-KKW) took off from Surabaya, Java with 102 people on board and was heading north west to Manado on the extreme north-east tip of Sulawesi. It went missing in an area of storm activity half way through the 2h trip, and the last contact with the crew was two emergency calls.

Cloud cover had made satellite location of the wreckage impossible and poor weather was hampering the search.