SURABAYA: At least 30 vessels and 15 aircraft have been deployed to look for the missing Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501, Indonesia’s vice president Jusuf Kalla said.
"This is not an easy operation but we are trying our best as we have dispatched all our relevant agencies such as the navy, coastguard, customs, air force among others to look for the aircraft," he said.
Jusuf said this after meeting with family members of passengers of the missing plane and following a briefing by officers on duty at the crisis centre at the Juanda Airport here.
"We also had help from our neighbours Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and there were also offers from the United States of America, France and the United Kingdom," he said.
Also present was Air Asia Group Chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes who said the focus for the airline now is to care and provide for the next of kin of the missing passengers.
"We will be doing investigations to find out what happened but for now it is too premature for speculations," he said.
Both Jusuf and Fernandes flew here from Jakarta where the main operation is coordinated by Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency.