An Adam Air airplane takes off at Sukarno-Hatta international airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, in this May 7, 2004 file photo. An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people disappeared in stormy weather on Monday, Jan. 1, 2007, and rescue teams were sent to search an area where military aviation officials feared the Boeing 737-400 aircraft may have crashed. [AP]

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A search plane spotted the smoldering wreckage of an Indonesian jetliner that was carrying 102 people and went missing over Indonesia's Sulawesi island, but there were no word on survivors, an air force commander said.

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"We have found the plane," rear commander Eddy Suyanto told el-Shinta radio station.

He said the plane was "destroyed" and had crashed in a mountainous region in west Sulawesi province.

An Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people disappeared in stormy weather Monday, and rescuers were sent to the area where the Boeing 737-400 may have crashed in what would be the country's second major transportation disaster in four days.

Adam Air Flight KI-574 was on a two-hour flight from Indonesia's main island of Java to Manado, on the northern tip of Sulawesi, one of the largest islands in the archipelago. Just over half of the flight path was over the Java Sea, the Maluku Sea and other smaller bodies of water, with the remainder over Sulawesi Island.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said the first distress signal from the plane was picked up over Sulawesi, about 470 miles southwest of Manado. The second was detected over Majene, a coastal city 550 miles southwest of Manado, another aviation official said, adding to confusion as to whether it disappeared over land or sea.

He said some rescue teams have already been deployed and that search parties comprising an airplane and five helicopters would set out to those to possible locations at dawn Tuesday.

Weeks of seasonal rains and high winds in Indonesia have caused several deadly floods, landslides and maritime accidents, including the sinking of a ferry in the Java Sea just before midnight Friday that left at least 400 people dead or missing. The passenger ship capsized about 650 miles southwest of where the Adam Air plane disappeared, and naval ships and helicopters continued Monday to scour the choppy tropical waters for ferry survivors.

Radjasa said it was too early to say if the plane crashed, stressing that all he knew so far was that contact with it had been lost when it was at about 35,000 feet and that the weather was severe.

"Let's hope the plane had an emergency landing," he told El-Shinta radio.

But Eddy Suyanto, military airport chief in South Sulawesi province, said the final transmissions indicated the plane "likely had an accident or a crash."

The 17-year-old plane carried six crew and 96 passengers, including 11 children. Contact was lost about an hour before it was due to land, said national aviation chief Ichsan Tatang.

Hundreds of people gathered at the airport in Manado seeking information about their missing relatives.

Justin Tumurang, 25, was waiting at the airport to pick up her twin sister.

"Being a twin, we share almost every feeling. I felt something was not right, and it grew worse. Now I feel pain," she said.

Similar scenes played out in the Central Java port town of Rembang, where family and friends awaited word about the Indonesian ferry that capsized in heavy rain three days ago, many losing hope as bloated bodies continued to wash to shore.

Search and rescue operations were continuing, with nearly 200 survivors found, but a temporary morgue also was being set up at a port close to where the Senopati Nusantara went down.

Hundreds of body bags were being readied.

"I am tired of crying," said Sipan, who goes by only one name, as he waited at the local hospital for news of his son. "Dead or alive, I will accept his destiny. It is up to God. All I can do is keep waiting."

With more than 17,000 islands, boats are one of the main modes of transportation in Indonesia. But people are increasingly taking to the skies, thanks in part to the emergence of budget airlines.

Adam Air is one of at least a dozen that have emerged in the country since 1999, when the industry was deregulated. The rapid expansion has led to cheap flights to scores of destinations around the sprawling nation, but has raised some safety concerns, since many of the airlines are small and lease planes that are decades old.

In September 2005, a Boeing 737 crashed after takeoff on Sumatra island, killing 143 people.

In September 1997, a Garuda Airlines Airbus crashed into a jungle-covered mountain slope in Sumatra, killing all 234 people aboard. Two months later, a Silk Air Boeing 737 jet crashed into a river on Sumatra, killing 104 people.

Adam Air, which began operations in 2003, was founded by Agung Laksono, the speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives and the company's chairman.

Last year, one of the carrier's jets lost all communication and navigation systems for four hours during a flight between the capital of Jakarta and Makassar on Sulawesi Island, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.

National aviation chief Ichsan Tatang refused to speculate about the cause of Monday's incident but said the missing aircraft's last inspection was on Dec. 25 and that the plane had flown 45,371 hours.