DHAKA: Items resembling a plane door and an emergency slide have been found in the search for missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501, according to officials.
At least 10 large objects have been found in the Java Sea, around six miles from where the plane lost contact with air traffic control, the Indonesian air force said in a statement, reports Sky News.
"Let's pray that those objects are what we are really trying to find," a spokesman added, according to the report.
On Tuesday, the search for the lost aircraft was expanded off the coast of Indonesia, with the US deploying a warship to assist the operation.
It has been more than 36 hours since the aircraft, with 162 passengers on board, communicated with air traffic control over the Java Sea - and officials fear the jet has crashed into shallow waters. A British businessman and his two-year-old daughter are among the missing.
On Tuesday, 30 ships and 21 aircraft from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia are scouring 10,000 nautical miles in hope of tracking down the Airbus A320.
The US Navy has confirmed that one of its destroyers, USS Sampson, is joining the recovery mission. Meanwhile, the Royal Australian Air Force has devoted a further two Orion aircraft to the operation.
Speaking to Sky News, aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas described the move to expand the search area between the islands of Borneo and Sumatra "somewhat surprising".
The editor of AirlineRatings.com added: "One of the things about the Java Sea is that it's peppered with islands. The whole area has been expanded considerably, which is somewhat surprising because they know precisely where they lost contact with the plane. My sense is that it's pretty much where this happened."
"We have a radar plot which shows the plane actually climbing through 36,300ft - it wasn't given permission to do that. It also shows that its speed had decayed by 134mph and dropped dramatically to a level where it couldn't sustain flight. We believe it was taken up by a massive updraft of a thunderstorm - therefore, it should be in the immediate area and not at a distant location."
Strong winds and currents in the region mean that debris could drift 30 miles away from its possible crash site on a daily basis.
There have been no confirmed sightings of wreckage from Flight QZ8501, which was travelling from Surabaya to Singapore in the early hours of Monday morning. Oceangraphers believe it would be easy to find debris in the Java Sea, as its waters are quite shallow.
Mr Thomas added: "It was quite some time before search and rescue got under way. Having said that, they have also been hampered by the same weather we feel caused the disappearance of the aeroplane. I don't think they got on to it as quickly as they should have."
BDST: 1228 HRS, DEC 30, 2014
