The commercial Adam Air passenger plane was flying between the Java and Sulawesi islands when it stopped making contact, the company's chief executive said.

Air traffic operators were still unable to contact Adam Air flight KI-574 this afternoon, Gunawan Suherman said.

The missing plane is a Boeing 737-400, carrying six crew and 96 passengers, including 11 children, Indonesia's El-Shinta radio reported.

Indonesian Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa confirmed the plane had lost contact, but could provide no more details.

The plane left Surabaya in East Java at 1pm local time (0600 GMT) on a two-hour flight to Manado on the northern tip of Sulawesi island, the Transport Ministry said.

Its last contact with flight controllers was at 2.07pm (0707 GMT) near southern Sulawesi.

Officials said the plane was only carrying enough fuel for a four-hour flight.

Adam Air, a privately owned low-cost airline, began operations in Indonesia several years ago and most of its flights are domestic. Last year, one of its jets lost all communication and navigation systems for four hours during a flight between Jakarta and Makassar on Sulawesi Island, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The aircraft mystery comes just days after a ferry disaster in Indonesia, which saw a packed vessel sink during a violent storm in central Indonesia.

A fleet of ships and aircraft were today keeping up their search for at least 400 people still missing after spending three nights in the Java Sea amid high waves.

More than 150 people have been rescued and dozens of bodies have either been spotted or collected, authorities say.

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