Debris is 'From AirAsia Plane': Indonesian Civil Aviation Chief

Jakarta: Red and white debris spotted off the coast of Indonesia's part of Borneo island was part of an AirAsia plane that disappeared over the Java sea with 162 people two days ago, an Indonesian transport official said on Tuesday.

Objects resembling a body, luggage and a life vest were also spotted by a pilot involved in the search for AirAsia flight QZ8501, said local media reports.

"As we approached, the body seemed bloated," First Lieutenant Tri Wibowo, who was on board a Hercules during the search operation, was quoted by the Kompas.com website as saying.

Indonesia AirAsia's Flight QZ8501, an Airbus AIR.PA A320-200, had sought permission from Indonesian air traffic control to ascend to avoid clouds just before it went missing early on Sunday on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

"The debris is red and white. It's probably from the body of the aircraft," said Indonesian Civil Aviation chief Djoko Murjatmodjo.

"Based on the observation by search and rescue personnel, significant things have been found such as a passenger door and cargo door. It's in the sea, 100 miles (160 kilometres) southwest of Pangkalan Bun," he added, referring to the town in Central Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo.

Indonesian aerial searchers earlier Tuesday spotted items resembling an emergency slide and plane door in the sea as they hunted for traces of the AirAsia plane which disappeared Sunday in a storm over the Java Sea with 162 people on board. It was en route from Indonesia's second largest city Surabaya to Singapore.

An AFP photographer on the search plane that spotted the debris said he had seen objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes as they flew just 500 feet (150 metres) above the water.

Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto had told reporters: "We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph."

"The position is 10 kilometres (six miles) from the location the plane was last captured by radar," he said.

Putranto displayed 10 photos of objects resembling a plane door, emergency slide, and a square box-like object.

The search has focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, across from Kalimantan.

Putranto had said a helicopter was headed to the location 190 kilometres from Pangkalan Bun and if the debris was confirmed to be from the plane, search and rescue ships would be sent out.

Last contact

Indonesian officials appear to have been preparing for the worst, with National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Bambang Soelistyo saying Monday it was likely the plane was at "the bottom of the sea", based on its estimated position.

The plane lost contact early on Sunday about 40 minutes after takeoff, after the crew requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather, in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.

In his last communication, the pilot said he wanted to avoid a menacing storm system, before all contact was lost.

Before take-off the pilot had asked for permission to fly at a higher level to avoid the storm but his request was not approved due to heavy traffic on the popular route, according to AirNav, Indonesia's flight navigation service.

In his final communication, the pilot asked to alter his course and repeated his original request to ascend to avoid the bad weather.

"The pilot requested to air traffic controllers to deviate to the left side due to bad weather, which was immediately approved," AirNav safety director Wisnu Darjono told AFP.

"After a few seconds the pilot requested to ascend from 32,000 to 38,000 feet but could not be immediately approved as some planes were flying above it at that time," Darjono said.

That was the last communication with AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

"Two to three minutes later when the controller was going to give a clearance to a level of 34,000, the plane did not give any response," he said.

Search expanded

News of the debris came after Basarnas said it had expanded the search to cover 156,000 square kilometres (60,000 square miles).

Australia, Singapore and Malaysia have sent maritime surveillance aircraft and warships to assist in the search, joining Indonesian planes, ships and scores of fishing boats scouring the waters for signs of the ill-fated aircraft.

Washington said it was deploying the USS Sampson to join the growing international effort, with the destroyer expected to arrive in the search zone Tuesday.

South Korea is sending a P-3 reconnaissance plane that was involved in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which vanished in March.

While the operation has drawn comparisons with the ongoing search for MH370 off Australia, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot has said it did not appear to be a great mystery, with bad weather the likely cause this time.

China, which had 152 citizens onboard MH370, said it was sending a frigate and military aircraft to help with the new search.

The missing plane was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost airline market and has never suffered a fatal accident. Most of the passengers were Indonesian.

The plane's 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 unrest-hit Ukraine, killing all 298 on board.