Confusion is growing over the fate of an Indonesian passenger plane that has gone missing since Monday. Senior officials have apologised for mistakenly stating that its wreckage had been found. The Boeing jet was carrying 102 people. Initial reports that 12 may have survived are now in doubt. The plane which was flying from Java island lost contact with the ground about an hour before it was due to land in Manado in the north of Sulawesi.

The search is now concentrating on other sites including areas of West Sulawesi where distress signals were picked up on Monday before contact with the plane was lost. The jet belonged to Adam Air, one of at least a dozen budget airlines that have emerged in Indonesia since the industry was deregulated in 1999.

The conflicting news has made the wait worse for relatives of the missing passengers. The US embassy in Jakarta has confirmed there were three Americans among them. Authorities say bad weather could have caused the plane to crash – heavy storms are also being blamed for the sinking of a ferry carrying more than 600 people on Saturday.

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