AirAsia: Objects sighted do not belong to flight disappeared in Indonesia

AP

The Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla, denied this Monday that sighted objects during the search of the missing plane AirAsia belong to the same, thus ruling out reports that an Australian surveillance apparatus would have detected some remains that could be from the flight.

“It has been proved and there is insufficient evidence to confirm this information,” Kalla said in a press conference at the airport in Surabaya, from where the missing plane with destination to Singapore took off on Sunday morning.

In search operations in the area 15 ships and 30 aircraft are involved, Kalla said. “It’s not an easy operation, especially at sea and with weather like this,” said an official.

For now, the search focuses on an oil slick discovered in front of the Belitung island, in the Java Sea, said a spokesman for Indonesian Air Force, Hadi Tjahjanto. “We are checking if it is Avtur (jet fuel) from the AirAsia plane,” said the spokesman.

Australia, Singapore and Malaysia have deployed aircraft and ships to help search the QZ8501 AirAsia flight that disappeared into the Java Sea while flying to Singapore.