Contact has been lost with a passenger plane flying between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sulawesi, aviation officials have said.

The Boeing 737-400 has 96 passengers and six crew on board.

The Adam Air plane reportedly left Surabaya in Java at 1300 local time (0600 GMT) on a two-hour flight to Manado in northern Sulawesi.

Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa said it had sent out a distress signal and rescue teams had been sent to find it.

It was believed to be near Mamuju, in southern Sulawesi, 750km (466 miles) south-west of its destination, but may have come down in the sea.

Severe storms

It was not clear why contact was lost, and there was no information as yet on the condition of the plane or its passengers, Mr Radjasa said.

Contact was lost at 35,000ft, when the plane was an hour away from its destination, a ministry official added.

An air traffic controller told local TV the aircraft had hit "very bad" weather and would have run out of fuel if it had not already landed.

The area has been subjected to high winds and severe storms in the last few days. About 400 people are still missing after a passenger ship sank off Java on Saturday morning.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta says Indonesia has a chequered flight safety record including several major crashes.

Last year near 150 people were killed when a plane crashed into a busy road shortly after taking off from Medan on the island of Sumatra.

Adam Air, a privately owned low-cost airline based in Jakarta, began operations in 2003.

Photo caption

Map of Indonesia