12 survive Indonesia plane crash, but 90 dead

8220;The plane8217;s location has been found and 12 people from the 102 people on board have survived,8221; said Adam Air rescue spokesman Captain Hartono. 8220;We are going to evacuate them to Makassar,8221; he said, referring to South Sulawesi8217;s provincial capital located some 1,400 km east of Jakarta.

But Transportation minister Hatta Radjasa cast some doubt on reports of survivors. 8220;Regarding the 12 survivors, these are reports from villagers that we cannot yet confirm.8221;

There were 96 passengers and six crew on board the plane. A copy of the plane8217;s manifest showed three passengers as non-Indonesians. The United States embassy in Jakarta confirmed they were Americans.

8220;They say the victims would be moved to Makassar but I could not find out anything about my relatives,8221; said Lely Jasman, 41, who was among a crowd of anxious relatives awaiting information from the Adam Air office at Makassar airport.

8220;Hopefully, they are among the 12 people I heard had survived,8221; said the civil servant from Makassar, whose uncle and cousin were on the plane.

No airline official was available for comment in Makassar.

First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, commander of Hasanuddin air base in Makassar, told Radio Elshinta an air force plane had spotted the wreckage of the Boeing 737-400.

8220;The plane was found around 20 km from Polewali in the mountains. The weather is clear,8221; Suyanto said.

The crash site is a five-hour drive through rough terrain from Polewali. Officials said local villagers have reached the area and rescue teams were on the way.

Idin Arifin, team leader from the national search and rescue agency, said the wreckage was tucked 4 km away from a remote hamlet.

8220;We cannot even see the smoke because the area is covered by jungles and the location is rather steep. Rescuers from the agency, military and police are on their way and we hope we can conduct evacuation today,8221; he told from a command post 18 km from the site.

Setyo Rahardjo, head of Indonesia8217;s national transport safety committee, said experts also have been sent to find the plane8217;s blackbox.

8220;I have formed a team that are on their way. We want to find the causes. We cannot give any conclusion yet at the moment.8221;

The transport ministry said the plane was last evaluated by the ministry in December 2005. It passed all service checks and was due to be checked again in late January.

Ministry officials said the plane was airworthy and had no records of trouble. It had 45,371 flying hours and, according to Adam Air, the 17-year-old aircraft8217;s engines are CFM56-3C1 models made by General Electric, said Ikhsan Tatang, head of the ministry8217;s aviation directorate.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters that budget airline Adam Air should not be hastily blamed for the incident. 8220;The airline is very careful. They do not take weather lightly. They will not fly if it was dangerous,8221; he said.

The accident followed weeks of seasonal rains and high winds in Indonesia that have caused deadly floods, landslides and maritime accidents8212;including the sinking of a ferry in the Java Sea late Friday that killed or left missing around 400 people.

About 200 survivors have been found so far. Officials say the search will continue until Sunday. Thirteen corpses have been recovered and scores of others have been spotted floating at sea.

Another 27 survivors were rescued elsewhere off the Java coast on Tuesday and taken to the eastern port city of Surabaya.

In another sea incident, officials said a speed boat capsized in poor weather on Monday night off the coast of Borneo island, killing 15.

8211;Ahmad Pathoni