The Boeing 737-400 belonging to Indonesian Adam Air airline company which went missing on a flight from Surabaya to Manado on Monday afternoon was reported to be still air worthy.
"The certificate of its airworthiness will expire on Jan. 19, 2009," the Antara news agency quoted Director General of Air Transportation Muhammad Ikhsan as saying in a press conference on Monday evening.
Ikhsan said the ill-fated aircraft which left Surabaya at 12:59 local time for Manado had undergone a recheck in December 2005 and was declared air worthy.
He explained that so far his office still did not know the cause of the disappearance and no report was as yet available about a possible emergency landing.
"It is true the weather in Indonesia is unstable and the skies tend to be cloudy," he said.
For the time being the ill-fated aircraft was reported missing at an altitude of 35,000 feet and it dropped at the coordinates of 3 degrees, 135 minutes, 257 seconds southern latitude and 0 degrees, 119 minutes, 135 seconds eastern longitude or possibly somewhere in the Mamuju region.
The last contact with the air control center in Makassar was at 13:53 local time but contact was lost at 15:07 local time.
"It is still unknown what caused the plane to go missing. Who knows its position now could be on land," he said.
The safety and security director of Adam Air and concurrently chairman of Adam Air's Crisis Center said the aircraft was carrying 96 passengers.
(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2007)