Officials say wreckage of Indonesian jetliner has not been found

POLEWALI MANDAR, Indonesia — Indonesia's transportation minister said Tuesday that rescuers had not found the wreckage of a missing passenger jetliner, despite earlier statements from aviation and police officials that it had been located.

The Adam Air Boeing 737 carrying 102 people sent out two distress signals in stormy weather Monday. Flight KI-574 was about halfway through its two-hour journey from Indonesia's main island of Java to Manado, on the northern tip of Sulawesi, one of the largest islands in the sprawling archipelago.

Three of those aboard were American citizens, the U.S. Embassy said. A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board team was to arrive Friday to offer assistance.

"The search and rescue team is still looking for the location," Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa told El-Shinta radio, insisting that earlier statements that the wreckage had been located were based on rumors from villagers that were passed on to local officials. "It has not yet been found."

Police Chief Col. Genot Hariyanto had earlier said that rescue teams arrived at the crash site on Sulawesi's western coast early Tuesday and found the charred wreckage of the plane and scores of bodies.

Setyo Raharjo, head of the National Commission on Transportation Safety, also said that searchers had found 90 bodies at the scene and the search for the other 12 was continuing. He had said the crash site was inaccessible by helicopter or car.

Other senior aviation officials also later retreated from the reports that the wreckage had been found.

Air force Rear Cmdr. Eddy Suyanto was one of numerous officials who had said the plane crashed in a mountainous region in Polewali, west Sulawesi province, but he acknowledged the error later Tuesday.

"We apologize for the news that we released earlier," he said. "It was not true."

Bambang Karnoyudo, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the erroneous reports that reached Indonesia's highest aviation officials, the military, police and Adam Air originated from Hariyanto, who said he received the information from his subordinates after they spoke to a village chief.

Descriptions of the crash site were vivid, with officials saying 90 corpses and debris from the plane were scattered over a 300-yard area of forests and jagged cliffs and that a dozen people may have survived — bringing anguish and hope to waiting relatives.

"Once he went to check for himself, he found it was not true," Karnoyudo said, referring to the local police chief.