Missing AirAsia plane maybe at sea bottom: Indonesian official

(Xinhua) Updated: 2014-12-29 12:08

Staff members unload AirAsia's QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore, which took the same code as the missing plane that took off 24 hours earlier, after it landed at Changi Airport in Singapore December 29, 2014. Indonesia searched the Java Sea on Monday for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that went missing after its pilot failed to gain permission to alter course to avoid a storm cell during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Flight QZ8501 did not issue a distress signal and disappeared five minutes after requesting a change of course on Sunday, said government and transport officials. [Photo/Agencies]

JAKARTA -- The AirAsia plane with 162 people on board may have fallen into the bottom of the sea, 24 hours after the jetliner vanished from radar en route from Indonesia to Singapore, said Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief Monday.

"We assume the missing jet at the bottom of the sea based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea," Bambang Soelistyo told the media at the Soekarno-Hatta main airport.

It can be expanded based on evaluation, he noted.

Should the projection be true, Indonesia needs to cooperate with other countries to bring the wreckage to the surface, Soelistyo said.

"We still do not have the equipment, we will borrow the devices from other countries," he said.

The official warned that the current may cause the wreckage of the plane to move.

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