AirAsia airliner missing, search suspended for night(2)

Aircraft involved in the search and rescue mission returned to base Sunday evening, but some ships were still in the area where the plane was believed to have disappeared, said the agency.

Earlier in the day, Djoko Murjatmodjo, director general of Air Transport of the Indonesian Transport Ministry, said planes and helicopters searching for the AirAsia jetliner had not found any signs that would indicate that it had crashed in the surrounding waters.

Australia, Britain, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia had offered assistance, he added.

Besides, China also offered one plane to help with the search operation, said Bambang Sulistyo, head of the search and rescue agency.

Meanwhile, AirAsia Indonesia issued a correction on the nationalities of the passengers and crew on board the plane.

The revised passenger list consists of one Singaporean, one Malaysian, three South Koreans, one Briton and 149 Indonesians. The crew comprise one French and six Indonesians. An earlier release showed that there were 156 Indonesians and no Britons.

At Singapore's Changi airport, people started to show up around noon at a specially designated waiting area for families and friends of Flight QZ8501 passengers.

At about 4:00 p.m. (0800 GMT), 10 people were seen being escorted into the waiting area, which was closed to the media. One of them, who declined to be named, said she had four relatives on board the flight, including a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old.

INT'L COMMUNITY PAYING CLOSE ATTENTION

Hours after the incident, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said her country is deeply worried about the safety of the passengers and crew and offers condolences to their families.

She added that no Chinese citizens were known to be aboard the plane and that China will continue to closely monitor the developments of the missing flight.

In Washington, the White House said it was monitoring the situation surrounding the plane and President Barack Obama had been briefed on the matter.

"The president has been briefed on AirAsia Flight 8501 and White House officials will continue to monitor the situation," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

During a telephone conversation with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he was very sorry to hear of the tragedy and his country has a P3 Orion on standby to join the search.

Meanwhile, Airbus said in a press release that it will provide full assistance to the authorities in charge of the investigation.

The missing aircraft is powered by CFM-56-5B engines and has accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to the aircraft manufacturer.

More information will be available once the details have been confirmed and cleared by authorities, Airbus said.