Hope Dims for Finding Survivors From Missing AirAsia Jet

JAKARTA:  After a second day of searching without any confirmed sighting of wreckage, the Indonesian authorities on Monday sought to lower expectations about finding survivors from a missing AirAsia jet carrying 162 people. "We realize that we have to be prepared for the worst," Jusuf Kalla, Indonesia's vice president, told reporters in Surabaya, the city from which the Singapore-bound plane took off Sunday. Kalla said that around 30 ships and 15 aircraft from four countries had joined the search for the jet in the Java Sea, between the islands of Borneo, Java and Sumatra. Bambang Soelistyo, the head of the National Search and Rescue Agency in Indonesia, offered even more sobering comments earlier Monday when he said that the aircraft was probably "at the bottom of the sea" and that Indonesia lacked adequate equipment to conduct an underwater search. Relatives of the plane's passengers gathered in airports in Surabaya and Singapore, waiting in hopes of news.   NY Times