Metal detected on the seabed for Indonesian Plane

Indonesian ships searching for an airliner that disappeared a week ago have detected metal on the seabed close to where it vanished, a naval commander said today.

Adam Air Flight KI 574, a Boeing 737-400 travelling from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-biggest city, to the resort of Manado, disappeared with 102 people on board.

An Indonesian naval vessel detected the metal in three locations within a small radius off the western coast of Sulawesi island, Gatot Sudijanto said. "If that metal turns out to be what we are looking for, then thanks be to God," he added.

A US Navy ocean mapping ship carrying more sophisticated sonar equipment was heading to the scene to check the metal, which lies more than 5,000ft below the surface.

Also today, rescue workers said they had saved 14 people who spent nine days drifting in a liferaft after a ferry sank between two Indonesian islands. Hundreds are feared to have died in the sinking.

Fifteen people in all were picked up by a passing cargo ship but one died soon afterwards, Ketut Purwa, the regional search and rescue head, said.

There were 628 people on the Senopati Nusantara car ferry when it sank after being pounded by heavy waves as it travelled between Borneo island to Indonesia's main island, Java, on December 29. Around 245 have since been found alive.

While only 10 bodies have been recovered, a navy spokesman said today that it was believed hundreds of bodies were trapped inside the lower decks of the ferry.

The long search for the plane has seen more than 3,000 soldiers and police fan out over a remote area of jungles and mountains the size of Ireland. Planes, helicopters and ships have scoured the ocean.

It had been buffeted by storms and 80mph winds, forcing it to change course twice during its journey.

The 17-year-old aircraft, which had seven previous owners, disappeared from radar screen over Majene, on Sulawesi's west coast. The pilot did not issue a mayday or report technical problems beforehand.

Relatives have endured an agonising wait, made worse a day after the plane disappeared when the authorities wrongly reported that the wreckage had been found along with 12 survivors.

The reports turned out to have been rumours spread by villagers and picked up by rescue workers.

Three Americans, a man from Oregon and his two daughters, were among the plane's 96 passengers. The US has been helping with the search, as has Singapore.

Adam Air is one of around 30 budget carriers that sprang up in Indonesia after the air industry was deregulated in 1998. The rapid expansion has brought cheap flights throughout Indonesia, but has raised concerns about maintenance of the leased planes.

In the wake of the two disasters, the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, ordered an evaluation of the nation's transportation system.