Indonesia VP: Object spotted in sea not from AirAsia plane

Jusuf Kalla says there is ‘no sufficient evidence’ to link Australian finding to missing aircraft

By AFP 29 December 2014, 1:17 pm

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An airport official checks a map of Indonesia at the crisis center set up by local authority for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014. (photo credit: AP/Trisnadi)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An object spotted during a sea search for an AirAsia plane was not from the aircraft, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Monday after reports that an Australian surveillance aircraft had found something.

“It has been checked and no sufficient evidence was found to confirm what was reported,” Kalla told a press conference at Surabaya airport from where the ill-fated plane departed.

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

The plane lost contact en route from Surabaya in Indonesia’s east Java to Singapore on Sunday after the crew requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather, in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.

The latest disappearance comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew, and in July flight MH17 was shot down over troubled Ukraine killing all 298 on board.