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ByTrisnadiMarjanand Margie Mason The Associated Press SURABAYA,INDONESIA The plane sought permission to climb above threatening clouds. Air traffic control couldn't say yes immedi- ately — there was no room. Six other airliners were crowding the airspace, forc- ing AirAsia Flight 8501 to remain at a lower altitude. More planes will be in the air and more ships on the sea Tuesday hunting for AirAsia Flight 8501 in a widening search off Indone- sia that has dragged into a third day without any solid leads. At least 30 ships, 15 air- craft and seven helicopters were looking for the jet car- rying 162 people, said Indo- nesia's Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bam- bang Soelistyo. Most of the craft were Indonesian but Singapore, Malaysia and Australia contributed to the effort. Aircraft from Thai- land planned to join Tues- day's search. He said the search area would be expanded to land areas, with four military helicopters dispatched just after sunrise near Pang- kalan Bun on the western part of Borneo island and to smaller islands of Bangka and Belitung. "Until now, we have not yet found any signal or indi- cation of the plane's where- abouts," Soelistyo told The Associated Press, adding fishermen from Belitung is- land were also helping. The U.S. Navy is also joining the search. It said in a statement that the USS Sampson, a destroyer, which was already on an independent deployment in the Western Pacific, and will arrive in the area later Tuesday. The longer the search goes without turning up any wreckage or hint of what happened to plane, the more the incident will evoke memories of the still- unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March. The AirAsia pilots had been worried about the weather and had sought permission to climb above threatening clouds. Air traf- fic control couldn't say yes immediately — there was no room. Six other airlin- ers were crowding the air- space, forcing Flight 8501 to remain at a lower altitude. Minutes later, the jet was gone from the radar with- out issuing a distress signal. The plane is believed to have crashed into Indonesia's Java Sea, but broad aerial surveys so far have turned up no firm evidence of the missing Air- bus A320-200. On Monday, searchers spotted two oily patches and floating objects in sep- arate locations, but it was not known any of it was re- lated to the plane that van- ished Sunday halfway into what should have been a two-hour hop from Sura- baya, Indonesia, to Singa- pore. The area is a busy shipping lane. Officials saw little reason to believe the flight met anything but a grim fate. Based on the plane's last known coordinates, the aircraft probably crashed into the water and "is at the bottom of the sea," In- donesia search-and-rescue chief Henry Bambang Soe- listyo said. Still, searchers planned to expand their ef- forts onto land on Tuesday. The last communication from the cockpit to air traf- fic control was a request by one of the pilots to climb from 32,000 feet (9,754 me- ters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) because of the weather. The tower was not able to immediately comply because of the other planes, said Bambang Tjahjono, di- rector of the state-owned company in charge of air traffic control. The twin-engine plane was last seen on radar four minutes after the final com- munication. A storm alone isn't go- ing to bring down a mod- ern plane designed to with- stand severe weather. But weather paired with a pilot error or a mechanical fail- ure could be disastrous. Pilots rely on sophisti- cated weather-radar sys- tems that include a dash- board display of storms and clouds, as well as reports from other crews, to steer around dangerous weather. "A lot more information is available to pilots in the cockpit about weather than it ever was," said Deborah Hersman, former chairman of the U.S. National Trans- portation Safety Board. But the technology has limits and sometimes information about storms "can be a lit- tle bit stale." AIRASIA FLIGHT 8501 Se ar ch a re a ex pa nd s fo r pl an e TRISNADIMARJAN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A search and rescue officer points to a co-ordination map of Indonesia at the crisis center set up by local authorities in search of the missing AirAsia flight 8501at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, on Monday. LUIGI MISTRULLI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A ship carrying passengers and crew of the Italian- flagged Norman Atlantic, that caught fire in the Adriatic Sea, docks in the harbor of Bari, Italy, on Monday. The Associated Press BARI, ITALY There were no fire alarms at first, no knocks on the door from the crew, just thick, acrid smoke filling cabins and waking passengers on the overnight ferry from Greece to Italy. In the chaos that fol- lowed, passengers sought safety from the flames on deck, only to be doused by cold rain and water hoses while heat from the fire be- low burned their feet. Pushing and shoving broke out, and passengers came to blows over coveted slots on lifeboats and heli- copter baskets. "Everyone there was trampling on each other to get onto the helicopter," Greek truck driver Christos Perlis told The Associated Press by telephone from one of the rescue vessels sum- moned after the Italian- flagged ferry caught fire off Albania early Sunday. "The jungle law pre- vailed," said Greek passen- ger Irene Varsioti. "There was no queue or order. No respect was shown for chil- dren." Italian and Greek heli- copter rescue crews Mon- day evacuated the last of the known survivors aboard the vessel, bringing the number rescued to 427. But the death toll climbed to at least 10, and the search in the Adriatic Sea continued amid seri- ous discrepancies in the ship's manifest, which con- tained 478 names. "We cannot say how many people may be miss- ing," Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said at an evening news conference. Italian officials said the names on the manifest may have represented just reservations, not actual passengers who boarded. Also, Italian navy Adm. Giovanni Pettorino said 80 of those rescued weren't on the list at all, giving cre- dence to suggestions from the Italian premier that the ferry may have been carry- ing a number of illegal mi- grants trying to reach Italy. The blaze broke out on the car deck of the Nor- man Atlantic while the ferry was traveling from the Greek port of Patras to Ancona in Italy. The cause of the fire was under inves- tigation. Ferry passengers recount chaos GREECE By Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis The Associated Press ATHENS, GREECE Greece's government was forced on Monday to call early na- tional elections, stoking fi- nancial concerns as inves- tors worry the main oppo- sition party will win — and want to renege on the coun- try's bailout deal. The Athens stock mar- ket closed 3.9 percent lower, recovering from an earlier 11.3 percent plunge on news of the election, which was triggered by parliament's failure to elect a new Greek president. Investors fear the left- wing opposition Syriza party, which has a narrow but steady lead in opinion polls, might act on popu- lar resentment at six years of government austerity by seeking to overhaul the in- ternational bailout deal. At the height of the eu- rozone crisis in 2010-2012, Greece's financial turmoil risked breaking up the currency union, an event which would have shaken the global economy. The risks today are not as great, analysts say. For one, little of Greece's debt is held by private inves- tors around the world, but mainly its bailout creditors, the International Monetary Fund and other eurozone countries. Also, the European Union and European Central Bank now have programs meant to stabilize markets and support confidence in eu- rozone markets. "Due to the policy ad- vances made, the safe- guards that have been put in place, and the ECB's stated public commitment to do- ing whatever is necessary to keep the eurozone together, events in Greece now pose much less of a threat to the eurozone" than a few years ago, IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said in a note. However, should a new government seek changes to the deal, Greece's access to credit would be delayed just as its bailout loans are coming to an end. Greece still cannot finance itself in- dependently on bond mar- kets, so it faces the danger of a default that could hurt the finances of fellow Euro- pean countries. Prof. Hendrik Vos, a Eu- rope expert at Ghent Uni- versity, said the prospect of Greece being forced out of the eurozone appears un- likely. "It is not in the interest of Greece itself and Syriza, too, is not asking for this," he said. "The other mem- ber states don't want it ei- ther. ... The uncertainty that comes with kicking a country out and not really knowing how, where it will all end — those same argu- ments still apply today." The IMF said Monday a current review of Greece's bailout program — upon which depends the payment of the next batch of rescue loans — will resume only af- ter the new government is in place. It said Athens faces no immediate financing needs, however. The review has been stalled for months due to disagreements on new spending cuts. Greek conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said national elections, the fourth in six fraught years of financial crisis, will be held "at the soonest possi- ble date" — Sunday, Jan. 25, 18 months early. BAILOUT DEAL Greece heads for early election, stoking financial concerns PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thankyou! 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