Parts of the missing AirAsia jet have been spotted at the bottom of the sea by a search plane, according to reports.
The suspicious objects were detected near Nangka island, about 700miles from where the plane lost contact with air traffic control.
Investigators will now probe whether the parts are from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which was carrying 162 people when it disappeared yesterday.
A rescue official said today that, given the route of the plane, he believed the most likely scenario was that it had crashed into the sea.
National Search and Rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo told a news conference: “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.”
The plane went missing in stormy conditions on its way from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore.
Jakarta’s Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto said today he could not be “sure” the objects discovered today by an Australian Orion aircraft were from the plane.
He said: “We cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane.
“We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions.”
First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Centre commander at Surabaya air force base, said 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were taking part in the search, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia.
He said visibility was good, adding: “God willing, we can find it soon.”
The plane’s disappearance and suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in south-east Asia.
The Malaysia-based carrier’s loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine.
At the Surabaya airport, passengers’ relatives pored over the plane’s manifest, 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.
The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia’s Lombok island, and had been happy to get the work.
“He just told me, ‘Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,”‘ she recalled, holding her grandson tight while weeping uncontrollably.
Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.
The Airbus A320 took off yesterday morning from Indonesia’s second-largest city and was about halfway to Singapore when it vanished from radar. The jet had been airborne for about 42 minutes.
There was no distress signal from the twin-engine, single-aisle plane, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director general of transportation.
Malaysia-based AirAsia has a good safety record and had never lost a plane.
But Malaysia itself has already endured a catastrophic year, with 239 people still missing from Flight 370 and all 298 people aboard Flight 17 killed when it was shot down over rebel-held territory in Ukraine.
AirAsia said Flight 8501 was on its submitted flight plan but had requested a change due to weather.
The plane had an Indonesian captain, Iryanto, who uses one name, and a French co-pilot, five cabin crew members and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement.
Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his two-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians.
