Jakarta: Rescue workers on Saturday failed to find the wreckage of a missing commercial jetliner in eastern Indonesia, with the chances of finding it getting slimmer as its onboard homing beacon stopped transmitting.
As the massive, internationally assisted search operation prepared to halt at nightfall in Sulawesi island, officials said they had stopped receiving the Adam Air Boeing 737-400's onboard Emergency Locator Beacon Aircraft (ELBA) signals.
"We still can't find the missing airliner, and the ELBA signal had stop beaming today," said Ahmad, an official from the National Search and Rescue Agency.
Four Indonesian Navy warships carrying amphibious troops and divers were sent to Sulawesi to bulk up what has already been a massive operation.
A team from the US National Transportation Safety Board arrived in Makassar on Saturday to assist the search by conducting offshore satellite imaging.
A Singaporean naval ship was also helping with the search and a Singapore Air Forces Fokker-50, which holds sophisticated equipment including infrared sights and sonar.
Adam Air flight KI-574 was carrying 96 passengers, including three US citizens and a crew of six, when it disappeared on Monday afternoon in bad weather.
It was on a scheduled flight from East Java capital Surabaya to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province.
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