REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MATARAM -- The local search and rescue agency is sending for a remotely operated vehicle to search for the wreckage of a plane near Moyo Island in West Nusa Tenggara.

"We are now waiting for the arrival of the equipment belonging to the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) from Jakarta," the spokesman of local Basarnas, Putu Cakra Ningrat, said here on Saturday (1/11)

Trainer PK-LLC Liberty Type XL2, belonging to Lombok Institute Flight Technology in Mataram, was reported to have lost contact near the waters surrounding Moyo Island at around 11.25 am on Thursday.

The aircraft carried two passengers on board - Singaporean Boon Huan Lua, who is an instructor and the pilot, and Jati Wikranto, a flight student from Jakarta.

Cakra said the underwater vehicle would search the waters around Moyo Island, while being controlled by an operator on land.

He said he hoped the vehicle could discover the location of the aircraft believed to have sunk to the bottom of the sea at a depth of 20 to 100 meters.

Cakra noted that various types of equipment had been used earlier to search for the aircraft, including two helicopters.

A search team has also combed the waters using Basarnas and marine police boats, as well as traditional boats belonging to fishermen.

"Until today, however, no result has been successful. We will continue our search efforts today, like before, by air and sea," he said.

On the second day following the incident the search team discovered aluminum foil commonly used as a layer in a trainer plane, as well as an oil spill believed to have come from the plane.

He could not confirm if the location where the items were found was also the location of the plane wreckage.

"We cannot confirm it. Moreover, the fishermen who found the debris no longer remember the exact location they found them," he said.

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