By Ahmad Pathoni MAKASSAR, Indonesia, Jan 6 (Reuters) - U.S. transport safety officials will arrive in Indonesia's Sulawesi on Saturday to help investigate the disappearance of a plane with 102 people aboard as search operations continue six days after the plane went missing. The plane, a 17-year-old Boeing 737-400, operated by Indonesian budget carrier Adam Air, disappeared on Monday in bad weather. In what officials said was his last conversation with air traffic control in Makassar, the pilot said the flight had encountered crosswinds and needed safe coordinates. Radar continued to track the flight for some time after that. "This morning six people from the U.S. national transport safety board will arrive here. They will work with KNKT (the Indonesian transport safety commission),"Setyo Rahardjo, head of the transport safety commission, told Reuters. "They will investigate aspects such as engineering, operations and weather. So far the search for the plane has not yielded any clues." Rescuers have been combing the sea and land for the missing plane which was heading for the North Sulawesi provincial capital, Manado, from Surabaya in East Java. The search had been concentrated in areas of western Sulawesi from where emergency signals were received on Monday, when the plane went missing with no mayday call from the pilot, but was expanded to the north and east on Friday. "The military Boeing and Cassa planes have resumed their search and a helicopter has flown to Palu (capital of Central Sulawesi). We are making our maximum efforts to find the plane," Captain Ikoputra, an air force officer coordinating the search operation, told Reuters. Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has asked for full resources to be devoted to the hunt for the missing plane without limiting the search by a timeline. At least four Indonesian military planes, a Singapore air force Fokker-50 and a helicopter have been looking for the missing airliner along with army and police ground teams and civilian and navy ships. Indonesia has seen an airline boom to serve its 17,000 islands and 220 million people since the industry was deregulated, but critics say safety lacks priority. Government and industry officials, however, say safety is a major concern for budget carriers and checks are regular.
