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ir Force personnel dressed in bright orange jumpsuits furrowed their brows while looking out of the tiny circular windows of the large C130 Hercules plane to search for the missing Air Asia Flight QZ8501.

Three hours into the second of the day search, navigator Maj. Djoko P. said there was no sign of the ill-fated Airbus plane that went missing on Sunday morning en route from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore.

The aircraft had 162 people on board and was piloted by Capt. Iriyanto who has booked 20,537 flying hours throughout his career.

Most of the passengers were Indonesian citizens, with seven foreign nationals ' one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one British citizen, three South Koreans and one French citizen, who was the copilot.

'No, there's no sign of any plane debris,' Djoko said on Monday.

The government focused search efforts on Monday in the Karimata Strait, the waters that separate Belitung Island and Kalimantan over which the airplane was last seen on radar at 6:17 a.m. on Sunday.

Before departing for the search from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, First Marshal Sri Pulung told reporters that the air force deployed on Monday two aircraft with a total of 30 crewmen who would scour the northern, eastern and western waters of Bangka Belitung at a height of 5,000 feet.

The Jakarta Post joined one of the two Hercules aircraft.

Singapore and Malaysia have also offered assistance with one aircraft each to join the search.

Several experts said that the most probable cause of the plane's disappearance was bad weather.

The last report from Iriyanto recorded by the Aviation Traffic Controller (ATC) in Jakarta stated that he was asking permission to climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.

The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), which confirmed that the waters around Bangka Belitung, where the plane lost contact with air traffic control in Jakarta, were heavily covered by clouds associated with thunder storms and heavy precipitation.

By the fifth hour, the search team on Monday was visibly bothered by the heat inside their aircraft but remained committed to the search.

The 15 crewmen not piloting the aircraft took turns looking out of the window to see if there were any clues as to where the missing plane might be.

Although no debris was found, the crewmen eventually received news by the sixth hour that there was an oil spill around the Karimata Strait.

As the plane circled the area, two large, dark circles were evident on the surface of the blue sea.

However, pilot Let. Col. I. G. Putu said that it was not a definite sign of the plane's location.

'We cannot, I repeat, we cannot confirm yet whether or not the oil spill was from the plane. To determine that we will need to send people straight to the location,' he said.

Earlier on Monday, National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief, Air Chief Marshal FH Bambang Soelistyo, said the prospects were bleak and the plane would most likely be at the bottom of the sea because the last recorded coordinates of it were at sea.

Putu explained that the party responsible for sending people directly to the location would be chosen after all the search parties ' including the Navy and Basarnas among others ' had discussed it together at the end of the day.

Furthermore, he added that the Air Force would continue their search tomorrow until deciding otherwise.

On Monday night, the Basarnas dispatched the corvette KRI Pattimura to check on the suspected oil spill location.

Basarnas said that it would announce the result of the night search today. The search will also be expanded to the seabed and surrounding islands, including Kalimantan.