South Korea and US Join AirAsia Plabe Search Operation

Jakarta (Antara) - South Korea and the United States have joined the Indonesia-led search operation to find the AirAsia aircraft that lost contact with Jakarta's air traffic control tower on Sunday, an Indonesian official stated. "We are getting additional assistance from South Korea today," National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) Chief F.H. Bambang Sulistyo informed journalists here on Tuesday. The United States Government has deployed a vessel equipped with two choppers and sonar equipment to assist the search operation. "The United States ship is expected to join the search operation today or tomorrow," he reported. China had also offered assistance by sending two aircraft and two vessels. "We basically accepted the offer, and we are carrying out the search operation together," Sulistyo remarked. Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia have also joined the massive search operation. In the meantime, Tuesday's activities of the Basarnas-led search operation were focused on 13 zones, Chief of Surabaya-based Basarnas Hernanto noted. Due to the larger search area, the efforts to spot the Flight QZ 8501, carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members, were continued by involving Indonesian vessels and aircraft and some from foreign countries such as Singapore, he stated. Basarnas also followed up on the claims made by several people who reportedly spotted the missing Airbus A320-200 and information on the oil spill at sea by combing the areas, he remarked. In response to this airline disaster, President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Monday had called on all concerned parties involved in the massive search operation to put in their best efforts to locate the missing jet. Acting Director General of Air Transportation Djoko Murdjatmojo stated that the aircraft might have lost contact at 6.17 a. m. on Sunday when it flew between Pontianak, West Kalimantan province, and Tanjung Pandan, Bangka Belitung Province. "The aircraft lost contact at 6.17 a. m. (Western Indonesian Standard Time). It just lost contact. We do not have any other assumptions," he added. (*)