The fate of an Indonesian airliner missing with 102 people on board remained in doubt late yesterday after senior officials apologised for erroneously stating that its wreckage had been found.

Officials had earlier said what was left of the plane, a Boeing 737-400 operated by budget carrier Adam Air, had been located in the mountains of Sulawesi island where it had crashed in heavy rain. Reports said 12 people had survived the crash.

"The location has not been found. We apologise that the news we conveyed was not true," First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, commander of Hasanuddin air base in Makassar, told reporters.

"It's not true that the crash location has been found," Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa told the same news conference, held less than an hour after another in which he had talked about difficulties in reaching what was thought to be the site.

"We found nothing when we arrived at the location," Air Marshall Suyanto added.

The plane lost contact with the ground on Monday about an hour before it was due to land in Manado in North Sulawesi, the transport ministry said.

The plane was carrying 96 passengers and six crew. A copy of its manifest showed three passengers as non-Indonesians. The United States embassy in Jakarta said they were Americans.

The plane went missing just two days after a ferry carrying more than 600 people sank in bad weather off the main island of Java. At least 200 were saved and rescuers were still finding survivors yesterday, but some 400 were still unaccounted for.

Air Marshall Suyanto had earlier told Radio Elshinta an air force plane had spotted the wreckage of the Boeing, and a spokesman for Adam Air said 12 people had survived and would be evacuated.