Naval ships, small boats, helicopters and surveillance aircraft from four nations expanded the search Monday for a missing AirAsia jetliner in the waters off of Indonesia as investigators spotted the first potential clues to the flight's disappearance.
Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto told The Times that searchers had seen an oil slick about 105 nautical miles off Indonesia's Belitung island near the Karimata Strait, which connects the archipelago nation to Singapore.
"We're checking whether it's jet fuel or fuel from a ship," he said.
Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency, which was leading the effort, said investigators believed the plane carrying 162 mostly Indonesian passengers had crashed into the Java Sea north of Jakarta a day earlier.
"My goal is to locate it as soon as possible," Bambang told a news conference in Jakarta. "We're doing the best we can."
The search effort that began after Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 lost contact with air-traffic control during a two-hour flight to Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya resumed at dawn after being halted Sunday evening due to darkness and poor visibility.
Bambang said teams searched an area comprising roughly 66,000 square miles in four sectors on Sunday, concentrating on a 250-mile-wide stretch of the Java Sea between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. On Monday the search expanded to the north to include the Karimata strait and the coasts of Belitung island and West Kalimantan province, he said.
Indonesia's armed forces had deployed transport helicopters and naval ships while Malaysia and Singapore had each sent C-130 Hercules transport aircraft and three ships to help ferry teams to and from the search site. Early Monday, Australia said it had deployed an Orion surveillance aircraft to join the effort.
By mid-afternoon, an Indonesian official told The Associated Press that an Australian Orion aircraft had spotted "suspicious objects" in the sea near Nangka island, northeast of Belitung, about 700 miles from where the plane lost contact.
Jakarta's Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto told the AP that search teams did not know whether the objects were part of the missing plane but said, "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions."
Tjahjanto, the air force spokesman, said earlier that an Australian plane had detected a weak signal from an object in the ocean but that no related debris was found.
If wreckage isn't found at the water's surface, investigators likely would begin scouring the sea floor for the Airbus A330-200.
"If that's the case, we'll have difficulty determining the location because our equipment is not adequate," Bambang said.
Singapore civil aviation officials said they were preparing to send two teams of specialists andunderwater locator beacons to help find the missing jet's flight data recorders.
China offered to send airlines and ships to join the search and rescue efforts, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing. In Washington, Pentagon officials said they were ready to assist but had not been asked.
AirAsia executive chief Tony Fernandes defended his airline's safety record, saying it had carried 220 million passengers in 13 years and never had a fatal accident.
"Until today, we never lost a life," Fernandes told a news conference in Surabaya. "No airline can guarantee 100% safety to its passengers."
Indonesian transportation ministry Ignasius Jonan said the government would review AirAsia's operations "to ensure that in the future its activity will be better." The low-cost carrier, which is based in Malaysia and operates mainly short flights across Southeast Asia, has a strong safety record and is widely regarded as one of the world's most successful budget airlines.
It was the third air disaster this year involving a Malaysian airline. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished in March en route to Beijing with 239 people aboard and is still missing, while the same carrier's Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.
Investigators were hopeful that recovering the flight data recorder would offer clues into the AirAsia plane's disappearance. The aircraft departed Surabaya roughly on schedule at 5:35 a.m. Sunday but apparently encountered heavy clouds during what is normally the wettest time of the year in Indonesia.
Indonesian transport authorities said the pilot communicated with air-traffic controllers at 6:12 a.m. asking permission to take a left turn off the scheduled flight path and climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.
According to multiple reports, the request to raise altitude was denied due to other aircraft in the area. The plane disappeared from radar at 6:18 a.m.
Families of the 155 passengers and seven crew members gathered at Surabaya's airport and Changi international airport in Singapore where AirAsia and government officials had set up crisis centers. Among those on board were 17 children and one infant, the airline said.
"AirAsia Indonesia's primary focus remains on the families," the airline said Monday. AirAsia Indonesia CEO Sunu Widyatmoko was in Surabaya meeting with families while other airline officials were doing the same in Singapore, it said.
Special correspondent Pathoni reported from Jakarta and staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.
For more news from Asia, follow @SBengali on Twitter
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times1:01 a.m. Tuesday: Updates with statement from Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto.
This story was originally published at 12:15 a.m. Monday.
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