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By Bloomberg

Indonesian authorities said they found debris from the AirAsia Bhd. passenger plane that went missing three days ago with 162 people on board, the first breakthrough to find out what happened to the jet on a routine flight to Singapore.

The Indonesian Navy spotted objects suspected to be an emergency door and underwater objects resembling a plane, F.H. Bambang Sulistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency, said in Jakarta. Indonesia is sure the items are part of the AirAsia aircraft, Sulistyo said. At least six bodies were found and three were picked up, TVOne reported, citing footage.

Search operations will be based in the nearby town of Pangkalan Bun in the central Kalimantan region of Indonesia, Sulistyo said. Divers have been prepared, he said.

“I as national search and rescue coordinator at this moment confirm 95%, confirm 95%, the location that’s pictured here is the location of the debris as well as objects that are suspected to have come from the plane,” he told reporters. “I haven’t seen with my own eyes the emergency exit door. But in communication with commanders on the ground they have stated that it’s the emergency exit door.”

“As a result I confirm that the location and those objects are parts, are parts of the plane that we’re searching for,” he said.

Black Box

Finding debris, and then the black box recorders that hold information about the aircraft, is key to discovering why the Airbus Group NV A320 aircraft went down after departing from the central Indonesian city of Surabaya. Losing the AirAsia plane caps what could be the worst year for air-passenger fatalities since 2010.

An international search began Dec. 28th when the plane disappeared off radars after the pilot requested a higher altitude because of clouds in the flight path. Indonesia’s Air Force had previously located objects suspected to be from the plane. The air force report on the location is in line with the last known position of the jet, 127 nautical miles from Pangkalan Bun.

Authorities earlier today widened the search area across the Java Sea as Chinese and U.S. military ships headed to the region. Indonesia, which leads operations as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and South Korea contribute ships and planes, broadened the combing area to 13 sectors from the seven they had been scouring, Sulistyo said earlier.

No Signal

The AirAsia pilots didn’t send a distress signal, drawing comparisons with Malaysian Airline System Bhd.’s Flight 370 that disappeared on March 8 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. No wreckage from that flight has been found in what’s become the longest search for a passenger jet in modern aviation history.

While AirAsia is based in Sepang, Malaysia, it operates with subsidiaries and affiliates in different countries. The missing plane belonged to its Indonesian operations.

AirAsia QZ8501 was at 32,000 feet when the pilots requested to fly higher to avoid clouds, acting Air Transport Director Djoko Murjatmodjo said in Jakarta. Air traffic controllers didn’t respond to the request before the plane disappeared off radar, National Transportation Safety Committee head Tatang Kurniadi said yesterday. There were storms along AirAsia’s flight path, Accuweather.com said on its website.

The last signal from the plane was between the city of Pontianak on Borneo and Tanjung Pandan.