JAKARTA, (UPI) -- As the search for a missing AirAsia passenger jet continued Monday, a day after it disappeared, authorities acknowledged the plane is likely at "the bottom of the sea."
AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ-8501 from Surabaya lost contact with air traffic control Sunday at 6:17 a.m. local time while en route to Singapore. The plane, with 162 on board, disappeared after the pilots requested a flight plan change due to inclement weather.
Bambang Sulistyo, head of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, told reporters Monday "(Because) the coordinate that was given to us and the evolution from the calculation point of the flight track is at sea, our early conjecture is that the plane is in the bottom of the sea."
The plane disappeared while flying in Indonesia airspace over the Java Sea between the islands of Belitung and Borneo.
An international search and rescue mission from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore deployed at 6:00 a.m. local time Monday to comb a "very broad search area" in Surabaya. That search area was expanded during the day from four sectors to seven.
AirAsia wrote via Facebook that its "primary focus remains on the families." Sunu Widyatmoko, the chief executive officer of AirAsia Indonesia, has been posted to the family center in Surabaya to provide updates to the families of the missing. "Another group of AirAsia officials are providing the same to the families based in Singapore," the airline noted.
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