Hopes fading fast as oil sighted in sea

Relatives hold a picture of the Herumanto Tanus family as they wait for news from the missing AirAsia plane at Juanda Airport, in Surabaya.

Families warned to expect the worst as searchers spot possible plane wreckage.

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What we know so far

Air force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto said the patches were spotted off Belitung Island in the Java Sea.

The oil would be sampled and analysed. "We are making sure whether it was avtur [aviation fuel] from the AirAsia plane or from a vessel, because that location is a shipping line [route]," he said.

Australia, Singapore and Malaysia have deployed planes and ships to assist in the search for Flight QZ8501, which disappeared over the Java Sea on Sunday en route to Singapore.

Last night, an Indonesian military commander also spoke of objects that had been spotted in the sea by a plane searching for the jet.

Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto of the air force said an Australian Orion had detected the suspicious objects close to Nangka Island, about 160km southwest of Pangkalan Bun, near central Kalimantan, or 1120km from the location where the plane lost contact.

But just before midnight (NZT), Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said the objects were not from the aircraft.

"It has been checked and no sufficient evidence was found to confirm what was reported," he told a press conference at the airport in Surabaya from where the plane departed.

Kalla said 15 ships and 30 aircraft were searching the area. "It is not an easy operation in the sea, especially in bad weather like this."

Relatives of the passengers and crew on Flight QZ8501 have braced for the worst.

Contact with the Airbus A320-200 aircraft ceased early Sunday morning (Singapore time), about 40 minutes after it left Juanda International Airport for Singapore.

Since then, a massive search and rescue effort has been under way, with air and naval resources focused near Belitung Island.

Louise Sidharta, whose fiance was on board, at an assembly area for relatives at Changi Airport.

Yesterday, those hoping for the best were greeted with devastating news.

"Based on the co-ordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," national search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said.

Five minutes before the plane lost contact, one of the two pilots asked to increase altitude from 32,000ft to 38,000ft due to bad weather, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director-general of transportation.

It was last seen on radar at 7.16am and disappeared a minute later.

As speculation mounted over what happened to the jet, relatives of those on board gathered at crisis centres in Singapore and Indonesia to wait out the search.

At Juanda Airport, passengers' relatives pored over the plane's manifest, looking for names, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list. Priowidodo, a 43-year-old tour agent, had been hoping the new year would bring prosperity, Ms Adityas said through tears.

He was on the flight for work and was taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia's Lombok Island.

"He just told me, 'Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune'," she said while holding her grandson tightly.

Dimas, who goes by one name, said his wife, 30-year-old Ratri Sri Andriani, had been on the flight to lead a group of 25 Indonesian tourists on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia.

He was holding out hope that the plane had made an emergency landing. "We can just pray and hope that all those aboard are safe," said Mr Dimas, supported by Ratri's parents and friends.

Nearly all the passengers and crew on the plane were Indonesians, with Singapore a popular holiday destination in the country.

The plane's captain has been identified as Indonesian national Iryanto. His co-pilot was believed to be French national Remi Emmanual Plesel.

There were also five cabin crew and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement.

Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian and Briton Chi Man Choi and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter, Zoe.

As well as the crisis centre at Juanda Airport, some families of those on board had chosen to gather together at their homes.

At Mr Iryanto's house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbours, relatives and friends had assembled to pray and recite the Koran.

Distraught cries of those inside the home could he heard outside, where three LCD televisions had been set up to monitor search developments.

"He is a good man. That's why people here appointed him as our neighbourhood chief for the last two years," said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a friend and neighbour.