POLEWALI, Jan 3: Indonesian rescue teams mounted a massive air, land and sea search on Wednesday for a missing airliner as anguished families and the media slammed authorities over false reports of survivors.

Distraught relatives flew to Makassar on the Sulawesi island to be close to the search as military aircraft, navy ships and police and civilian teams focused efforts on the waters just west of the island and an area inland.

The Adam Air Boeing 737-400 with 96 passengers, including three Americans and six crew, vanished from radar screens on Monday halfway through a flight from Surabaya, on central Java island, to Manado on Sulawesi's northeast tip.

Officials reports on Tuesday that the wreckage and some survivors had been found on a jungle-covered mountain near Polewali in the west turned out to be false after rescue teams combed the area.

Aircraft accidents are not uncommon in Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation stretching over 5,000km, but the unusual circumstances in this case have stunned the country.

Adri Mamoto, whose parents were on board the flight, said he had travelled from Manado to Makassar only to be told there was no news after all.

“After all that effort, we decided to just go back home to Manado and wait for more news from Adam Air, what else can we do?” he told ElShinta radio.

Mila, sister of air hostess Nining Iryani, said the reports had devastated her family.

“This is a question of life,” she told the Warta Kota daily. “Do not fool around when disseminating information. Our whole family has had no peace since we heard of the crash.”—AFP