Indonesian plane search continues

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Reinforcements are being sent to join the search for a missing Indonesian airliner, which vanished from radar screens a week ago.

Four more helicopters are due to arrive on Monday to help look for the Adam Air plane, which was carrying 102 people from Java to Sulawesi.

But there is some good news about another recent Indonesian disaster.

Fourteen people on board a ferry that sank off the Javan coast nine days ago have been rescued by a passing ship.

About 250 survivors have been picked up so far, of the approximately 600 people thought to have been onboard.

Extended search

A massive air, land and sea operation is under way on Sulawesi island to look for the downed Adam Air Boeing 737-400, which disappeared without trace last Monday.

A team of US investigators is helping with the search, together with nearly 3,000 soldiers, police and civilians.

"For today [Monday] the search continues to be focused in areas that have already been combed before," First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto told the French news agency AFP.

"There is no extension of the search, but it is now more detailed," he said.

Bad weather has hampered the search, as have false leads. Government officials had to apologise soon after the plane's disappearance for erroneously saying that the wreckage had been found.

Vice-President Yusuf Kalla said over the weekend that the search would continue despite the cost.

"It's impossible that it just disappeared," he said. "Even if it takes a month ... we have to keep searching."

But some relatives of missing passengers have admitted to reporters that they believe the chances of anyone being found alive are slim.