AirAsia QZ8501 Plane Is Likely To Be At The Bottom Of The Sea

The missing AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 is likely to be at the bottom of the sea, the head of Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency has said.

Bambang Soelistyo said the hypothesis was based on the co-ordinates of the plane when contact with it was lost.

The search for the Airbus A320-200, which disappeared with 162 people on board on Sunday on a flight to Singapore, has ended for a second day.

The search area will be widened on Tuesday.

Indonesia has asked for US help in searching for the plane, the US state department said, adding that it was considering the request.

The pilots had requested a course change because of bad weather but did not send any distress call before the plane disappeared from radar screens between Borneo and Sumatra.

"Based on the co-ordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea, the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," Mr Soelistyo told a news conference in Jakarta.

A BBC reporter Sri Lestari in Indonesia said:

I boarded a military aircraft at 06:00 at a base in Jakarta and was on board for 10 hours, seven of which were spent searching over the Java Sea near Belitung island.

It took us about two hours to reach the area where the authorities believe the plane was when it lost contact with air traffic control in Jakarta.

Our plane was flying very low - about 300-450m (1,000-1,500ft) above sea level. The weather was very clear and the waters relatively calm.

From the aircraft I could just see the water, a small island and a few fishing boats. The search team was trying to find wreckage or some signal from the missing plane. They were looking at the sea through small windows.

I did the same thing, checking the windows every 15 minutes. But I saw nothing.

At around 14:00 the search team found

a slick of oil, but the authorities weren't sure where it had come from.

Announcing the end of the day's searching, Mr Soelistyo said that on Tuesday the search area would be widened to cover West Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, and the southern parts of the waters off the coast of Belitung island.

Weather conditions on Monday were very good, he said, but helicopters involved in the search lacked the visual equipment for searching at night.

The search would continue to focus on oil slicks seen on Monday, Mr Soelistyo added, though it is not clear whether they were caused by the plane. Some ships were still searching for the plane, he added.

Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said that 30 ships and 15 aircraft were taking part in the search and that any ships in the area and "even fishermen" were being asked to join in.

Flight QZ8501 had left Surabaya in eastern Java at 05:35 on Sunday (22:35 GMT Saturday) and was due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30.

The pilot radioed at 06:24 local time asking permission to climb to 38,000ft (11,000m) to avoid the dense storm clouds.

Indonesian officials said the request could not be immediately approved due to traffic but the plane disappeared from the radar screens before the pilots gave any further response.

It is unclear what happened next but one report suggests the plane may have tried to climb through the storm.

Former pilots say such a move could lead to reduced stability and possibly a fatal stall, as the plane is battered by ferocious cross winds and down draughts.

Modern aircraft are designed to withstand such pressures but experts say pilots can lose control in extreme circumstances.

Co-pilot Remi Emmanuel Plesel (left) and Captain Iriyanto