A search plane spotted early today the smouldering wreckage of an Indonesian airliner that went missing over the island of Sulawesi with 102 people on board. There was no sign of any survivors.

“We have found the plane,” Rear Commander Eddy Suyanto, of the Indonesian Air Force, said, adding that the Boeing 747-400 aircraft had crashed in mountainous terrain and been “destroyed”. Policemen who arrived at the scene in western Sulawesi reported numerous bodies, saying that at least 90 people had been killed.

Flight controllers lost touch with the aircraft belonging to the Indonesian company Adam Air at about 2pm local time yesterday as it encountered bad weather between the islands of Java and Sulawesi. The aircraft left Surabaya in Java at 1pm on a two-hour flight to Manado on the northern tip of Sulawesi.

It was carrying 96 passengers, including 11 children and 6 crew members. All but three passengers were Indonesian.

A little over an hour later, as the aircraft crossed the south coast of Sulawesi at an altitude of 35,000ft, it disappeared from radar and contact was lost.

Six hours later a satellite station in Singapore picked up a distress signal from an aircraft 83 nautical miles northwest of Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province.

Indonesia has a history of problems with flight safety, including several big crashes. In 2005, nearly 150 people were killed when an aircraft belonging to Mandala Airlines, the Indonesian carrier, crashed in Medan, the country’s third-biggest city, shortly after taking off.

Adam Air, a privately owned airline based in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, specialises in low-cost domestic flights. Last year, one of its aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing after a navigational failure during a flight between Jakarta and Sulawesi island.

The area between Java and Sulawesi has been hit by violent storms and high winds in the past few days, with 400 people still missing after a ferry sank off Java on Saturday.

Search and rescue operations are continuing with almost 200 people having been found alive so far. Yesterday the air force dropped food and water to survivors stranded in the sea.

Times Recommends

• It’s only Brits who don’t appreciate me, says Blair
• Party’s over for Greek graspers
• White House tightens security for Xmas marathon