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Indonesia Plane Likely Spiraled Into Sea
A jetliner with 102 people onboard probably went into a spiral at cruising altitude and plunged into the sea, a top transport safety official said Tuesday, deeming a mid-flight explosion unlikely.
Setyo Rahardjo, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the chance is small the Boeing 737 blew up because search and rescue teams have not found burnt wreckage or human remains since New Year's Day, when the Adam Air plane went missing.
"We have only found little pieces of aircraft which indicates the main body of the aircraft is at the bottom of the sea," Rahardjo told The Associated Press. "Until now no human bodies have been found."
The explosion option has been dropped from a list of three crash scenarios that still includes possibilities that the plane suffered a catastrophic structural failure and broke apart at 35,000 feet, or was damaged in severe weather.
It was the first public speculation by aviation authorities on the cause of the accident in northeastern Indonesia after the plane encountered 80 mph winds and went off the radar without issuing a mayday.
Three Americans - a man from Oregon and his two daughters - were among the passengers.
The main priority for search teams is now recovering the black box to reveal flight data on its last moments in the air that could help piece together what went wrong, Rahardjo said.
"It is very difficult to find the cause with so little information and so few parts of the aircraft having been found," he said.
