Australian plane spots objects in sea in AirAsia search area

But official says not sure if the objects are part of the missing plane

An Indonesian official has said objects have been spotted in the sea by a search plane hunting for the missing AirAsia jet.

Jakarta's Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto said he was informed today that an Australian Orion aircraft had detected suspicious objects near Nangka island, about 160 kilometres southwest of Pangkalan Bun, near central Kalimantan, or 1,120 kilometres from the location where the plane lost contact.

"However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane," Putranto says, "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions.

Earlier today, Indonesia's search authority said the plane is suspected to be at the bottom of the sea and that it hadn't detected any signal from the plane's emergency locator transmitter. 

The plane carrying 162 people went missing on Sunday, after the pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia’s Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia AirAsia said there were 155 passengers and seven crew members on board — 156 of them Indonesians, three from South Korea and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and France.