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>> on board, 162 people. 155 were indonesians. shortly before communication was lost, the captain of the plane asked for a change in altitude because of bad weather. >> let's go now to cnn's paula hancocks who joins us on the line from indonesia, where some of the search is being launched. paint a picture for us what's going on there, paula. >> well michael, i've just landed here at the airport. and on the runway i can see there's three helicopters, there's one search and rescue one navy one army. we've been speaking to them on board, and they said they did one sortie today and didn't find any...

That is easier to search? >> that's a good way of putting it. it's far enough north for the seas to be a lot calmer. the area is sort of boxed in almost, there's africa and australia on either side and i was talking to an oceanographer this morning and he was saying the average wave height in the southern ocean was up to six meters, where they're going now it's about three meters. so better conditions generally. the conditions are said to be fine. there's about -- well, there's ten planes going out today, several of them are already on target. the other thing, too, which is important in this, ...