Debris of missing Indonesian plane found

Jakarta: Debris of a commercial airliner that went missing 10 days ago in eastern Indonesia with 102 people on board has been found by a fisherman off the coast of Sulawesi Island, an official said on Thursday.

"A fisherman on Wednesday night in waters near Pare-Pare in South Sulawesi province found a floating, two-metre-wide tail stabiliser, with a registration number matching a Boeing 737-400 that vanished on New Year's Day," First Air Marshall Eddy Suyanto of the Indonesian Air Force, who led a frantic search operation for the plane, told Jakarta-based TransTV.

"What was found was the left tail stabiliser by a fisherman in Pare-Pare, about 300 metres off the beach," Suyanto said. The town is some 1,200 km northeast of Jakarta.

Flight KI-574 was carrying 96 passengers - including three US citizens - and a crew of six when it disappeared from radar during a scheduled flight from Surabaya, capital of East Java province, to Manado, North Sulawesi provincial capital. The jet was operated by Indonesian budget carrier Adam Air.

"Hopefully the discovery will help shed some light on the missing jetliner," Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa was quoted as saying by the Elshinta radio station.

Pare-Pare Police Chief Gnot Haryanto said the body of a woman was found floating near the port, but it remained unknown whether she was a passenger on the doomed flight.

"The person appears to have died several days ago," Suyanto said, according to Elshinta radio station. "There was no identification found on the woman, who had scars on her feet."

Family members of the passengers told the radio station that they hoped rescue teams would recover all the victims' remains so they could immediately perform religious ceremonies.

Indonesian officials initially said the plane had been found with 12 survivors one day after the crash, but later had to quash the report as a rumour.

Officials have also released other pieces of crucial information that they were later forced to retract, including that the plane's pilot sent out a distress signal before disappearing in bad weather.

Aircraft and ships from Singapore, Canada and the US joined in the search after a massive sea, air and land operation led by Indonesian armed forces failed to find any trace of the plane.