Mystery deepens over missing plane

[Dover]

MAKASSAR, Indonesia (AP) -- An Indonesian jetliner that vanished with 102 people aboard did not issue distress signals or report any mechanical problems, a top aviation official said Thursday, contradicting earlier reports.

Meanwhile, a fleet of aircraft took to the skies, ships scoured the sea and soldiers battled rugged jungle terrain for the third day, searching a 28,000-square-mile area -- roughly the size of California. But by late afternoon they had seen no sign of the wreckage.

Earlier this week, officials wrongly reported finding the Boeing 737's wreckage and a dozen survivors, causing anguish among the passengers' families. (Watch rescuers search for plane )

"Search efforts have expanded, they're more sophisticated ... but they haven't discovered anything as far as they've told me," the girls' mother, Felice Jackson DuBois of Bend, Ore., told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. "It's still a zero at this point."...cont'd

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/indonesia.plane.ap/index.html

[babylonsister]

1. Gosh. I can't even imagine being a relative of someone on that

plane. How sad. I heard the pilot's cell phone was called, and it rang but no answer, so someone assumed they're up in the mountains somewhere.

[karlrschneider]

2. That's a horrible part of the world to have to search. There must be 2000

islands scattered around the area...?

It's hard to imagine unless you've seen how a plane can virtually be swallowed by a jungle.

[zonkers]

3. Wouldnt there be some sort of satellite imaging available of the area at the time of the

crash? Doesn't this capability exist? It is Indonesia, a hotbed of Islamic Militancy. You'd think....

[Eugene]

4. See reply #2

Satellite imagaging doesn't work in real time. Also the plane went down
in bad weather that is still hampering the search.

If the plane crashed in the jungle, the canopy can restore itself fairly
quickly. The plane just as likely may have crashed into the sea.

Late reports say that searchers are checking out witnesses' reports
of hearing a low flying plane on Monday.

[BridgeTheGap]

5. What about a beacon/transmitter?

Aren't all air liners equiped with these?

[Eugene]

7. The plane's ELT's were picked up at the time of the crash

according to this report from the Associated Press:

Posted on Thu, Jan. 04, 2007

Indonesia jet did'nt send distress signal
ZAKKI HAKIM
Associated Press

-snip-

"The plane did not report any complaints about the navigation, the condition
of the plane or other technical problems," he said, adding that two signals
from its emergency beacon - which is activated on impact - were picked up
by a plane in the vicinity and a satellite.

That appeared to contradict earlier reports from officials that the pilot
sent out two distress signals before the plane went down.

-snip-

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/16377911.htm

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

6. It's like Lost!

Maybe the Dharma Initiative got to them.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. California must have shrunk

since 28,000 square miles is barely larger than West Virginia. The California I learned about occupied approximately 164,000 square miles.

[ShockediSay]

9. Why does this story keep changing?

Tragic on top of tragic

[Matariki]

10. Didn't this plane disappear the same day the 'ufo' was spotted over O'Hare airport?

just asking.