Air Asia jet loses contact with air traffic control
INTERNATIONAL rescue teams will scour waters at first light as the search for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 enters yet another day with a Melbourne student reportedly on-board the flight.
INTERNATIONAL search teams will today resume the agonising search for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501.
Bad weather hampered search teams in their efforts to locate the jet which was carrying 162 people when it disappeared on Sunday.
The search for the missing jet will move to land today as patches of oil spotted in the Java Sea were being examined for possible clues.
F. H. Bambang Soelistyo, the chief of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency Basarnas said he wanted the search operation to be completed as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile it has emerged a Melbourne student is among the 162 people lost at sea aboard the missing AirAsia flight.
The Herald Sun understands Monash University student Kevin Alexander Soetjipto was travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with relatives when the plane vanished over the Java Sea.
Search teams will today explore a wider area of the Java Sea for the jet which has been missing since Sunday.
As the agonising search continues it has been revealed the pilots had requested to fly above the weather but were denied permission, Sky News reported.
The revelations follow the news that Australian search and rescue planes reportedly spotted objects in the ocean.
The Associated Press reports that Jakarta’s air force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto says he has been informed that an Australian Orion aircraft had detected suspicious objects near Nangka island, about 160 kilometres southwest of Pangkalan Bun, near central Kalimantan, or 1120 kilometres from the location where the plane lost contact.
“However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane,” Putranto says, “We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions.”
Hundreds of miles away from the sighting, an Indonesian helicopter also saw two oily spots in the search area. However, it was too early to know whether either was connected to the missing aircraft.
Earlier, Indonesia’s search chief announced that the plane is likely at the “bottom of the sea”.
The plane, with 155 passengers and seven crew, has been missing since yesterday afternoon when it is believed to have flown into severe thunderstorms between Indonesia and its destination Singapore.
Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters this afternoon: “Based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea, the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea.
“That’s the preliminary suspicion and it can develop based on the evaluation of the result of our search,” AFP reported.
Visibility around the Java Sea is good, according to First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval commander at the Surabaya air force base.
“God willing, we can find it soon,” he told the Associated Press early today, more than 24 hour hours after the plane was last in contact.
The missing flight has come at a high price for the airline as shares tumbled 13 per cent today.
AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA) shares took their biggest slide in three years, down 12.62 per cent to 2.60 ringgit at the open, and were 7.82 per cent lower this afternoon, with the airbus still missing.
The Australian Defence Force has deployed an AP-3C Orion Patrol Aircraft from Darwin to assist with the search.
No Australians were believed to be on-board the flight.
Families of those on the flight are being briefed by airline representatives in a closed-door meeting at Surabaya airport.
The search got underway again about 10.30am this morning after being hampered by bad weather last night.
Twelve navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships are taking part in the search, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia, and the Orion from Australia.
John Cox, a former accident investigator, told the South China Morning Postit was routine for pilots to fly around thunderstorms using on-board radar.
He said flight crews could see storms forming more than 160km away.
“It’s not like you have to make an instantaneous decision,” he said.
“Because a jet moves at eight miles a minute, if you to go 100 miles out of your way, it’s not a problem.”
MSNBC TV reported the plane had may have attempted to pass over a sixty-thousand foot, level five thunderstorm before it went missing.
According to airliners.net, entering a level five storm means you’re liable to “hurt yourself”.
Planes from Indonesia and Singapore had been scouring an area of sea between Kalimantan and Java earlier.
The plane been due to land in Singapore around 11.30am AEDT.
Unconfirmed reports have also emerged of plane wreckage being found, but no official verification of such claims has been made.
The flight lost contact three minutes after a request to deviate from flight plan. Reports indicate there was no distress call from the flight.
The chief executive of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, thanked the Indonesia, Signapore and Malaysian governments for their support in the search — in which he continued to call a “search and rescue operation”.
“Our priority is looking after all the next of kin for my staff and passengers. We will do whatever we can,” he said.
He conceded the airline had “no idea what went wrong” and described the incident as his “worst nightmare”.
I am touched by the massive show of support especially from my fellow airlines. This is my worse nightmare. But there is no stopping.
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 28, 2014To all my staff Airasia all stars be strong, continue to be the best. Pray hard. Continue to do your best for all our guests. See u all soon
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 28, 2014WHAT HAPPENED?
FAA licenced commercial pilot Anthony Roman told MSNBC it is likely the plane would have tried to go above the storm.
“This particular aircraft was attempting to override the thunderstorm”, he said,
“These type of thunderstorms can exceed the aircraft’s capability, they can actually grow upwards much faster than the aircraft can climb.
Mr Roman said the storms as seen by the one encountered by the flight “can take down this kind of aircraft”.
“Catastrophic hail can cause damage to the structural integrity, you can have such severe turbulence it exceeds the design limits of the aircraft.”
He said the plane “can be detected by radar, however it’s not an exact science.
“If there is severe hail in a storm, or a thunderstorm behind the first thunderstorm, the radar can be messed,” he said.
Greg Feith, former NTSB Investigator told MSNBC the weather would likely be the focal point in the investigation.
“While they’re still waiting to find debris, and the cockpit voice recorder, and the flight data recorder, there’s a lot of behind the scenes work going on to gather as much information as they can from the airline.
“What the crew knew, what information they used for flight planning purposes and, then of course, was there any communication between the crew and their dispatcher with regard to the deviation around this weather,” he said.
Unconfirmed reports suggested debris of a crashed plane may have been spotted near East Belitung.
#QZ8501 seen by Pontianak Rdr passing Fl363 w 353kts grnd speed, tracking west. Brg 141° frm RAFIS at 52.9NM. pic.twitter.com/zVAV3puVpe
— Gerry Soejatman (@GerryS) December 28, 2014THE WORLD RESPONDS
On Sunday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott phoned Indonesian President Joko Widodo and offered an Australian plane to join the search for AirAsia QZ8501.
Mr Abbott told the Indonesian President a P3 Orion and crew had been placed on standby to assist with the mission.
Mr Widodo said he would order his Defence Minister to speak with Australian Defence Minister Kevin Andrews to determine if Australia would be required to assist.
He told Mr Abbott he was aware how much work Australia had done in the region, particularly with MH370.
Mr Abbott said Australia would do whatever “we humanly could” to assist.
Singapore authorities had also offered to help with a major search and rescue operation for the missing flight.
Airbus released a statement offering its full co-operation with the ongoing investigation into the flight which was travelling from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore when it disappeared off the radar.
I’ve spoken to President Widodo tonight to convey Australia’s sadness at the #AirAsia #QZ8501 tragedy and offered all we can to assist
— Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) December 28, 2014AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 07:24hrs this morning http://t.co/WomRQuzcPO
— AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014
Full flight manifest for #QZ8501: 1 infant, 16 children, 138 adults, 23 no-shows. http://t.co/HsfiJ5Y7qh h/t @YahooSG pic.twitter.com/Pj7NGFJfEM
— Laura Keeney (@LauraKeeney) December 28, 2014#staystrong @AirAsia - Our thoughts and prayers are with all family and friends of those on board QZ8501.
— Malaysia Airlines (@MAS) December 28, 2014
Updated statement: QZ8501 http://t.co/sJ008zEgUm
— AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014AirAsia #QZ8501: There were several aircraft nearby when signal from the flight was lost, FlightRadar24 data shows. pic.twitter.com/CwR9eUivth
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 28, 2014Three ships and three planes from Malaysia will join the search, Sky News reported.
The Singapore Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), a conglomerate of air agencies including the country’s air force and navy, has offered support to Indonesia to help search for and locate the missing flight.
In a statement, Airbus said it regretted to confirm the A320-200 had gone missing.
The manufacturer said the twin-engine single-aisle aircraft could seat up to 180 passengers and came off the 2008 production line and had done 23,000 flight hours on around 13,600 flights.
“Airbus will provide full assistance to the French safety investigation authority, BEA, and to the authorities in charge of the investigation,” the statement said.
“Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed and cleared by the authorities.”
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, the plane was more than 200 nautical miles south east from Singaporean airspace at the time.
AirAsia said there were 156 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one each from Malaysia, Singapore and France on the flight, which included flight crew.
Indonesia Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told a media conference the plane went missing not far from the shoreline between Tanjung Pandan and Pontianak.
[Updated statement] QZ8501 as at 6:54pm (GMT+8) http://t.co/5QBdOXGiwe
— AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014AirAsia has changed their Facebook profile image from a red logo to a grey logo. #AirAsia pic.twitter.com/CnlDGeBjdw
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 28, 2014Speaking to the Herald Sun, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had been in touch with the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and the High Commission in Singapore as officials attempted to confirm if there were any Australians on board.
Ms Bishop last night said she had requested the manifest to see if there were any dual citizens or permanent residents on the flight.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade added anyone who had concerns about the welfare of their Australian family and friends should contact its 24 hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1 300 555 135 (or +61 2 6261 3305 if calling from overseas.
PASSENGERS AND CREW
As the search continues, more details are emerging of the passengers and crew.
Oscar Desano is listed as a flight attendant on board the AirAsia flight.
In a post to his Twitter account on Christmas Eve, he wrote: “Merry Christmas to all my beautiful friends who celebrate it”
He has posted many tweets earlier in the year about MH17 and MH370 disasters.
One read: “My deep condolences also for the (passengers’) family, may all the casualties rest in peace ...”
Ari Putro Cahyono, a resident of Surabaya told media a misunderstanding forced him and nine family members to miss the flight.
Ari said that he and his family had arrived at Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, at 5:30am as the flight was originally scheduled to depart at 7:20am, but they later found out that the schedule had been changed to 5:20am.
“I did not read the email notifying the change of the departure schedule,” said Ari as quoted by kompas.com.
They were offered a later flight but he refused when he learned of Flight QZ8501 had disappeared.
Another passenger, a bride-to-be, told how her fiance was on the flight and meant to be enjoying his last holiday as a bachelor.
Louise Sidharta, 25, said Alain Oktavianus Siaun, 27, was on board with his parents and three brothers.
As concerned relatives began arriving at Surabaya Airport, officials posted a list of those on-board.
AirAsia said there were two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer on board. The pilot had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer 2, 275 flying hours.
The plane, registration PK-AXC, last had maintenance on November 16.
Of the people on-board there were 138 adults, sixteen children and one infant.
Saddened to hear of missing flight #QZ8501. My thoughts are with the passengers and their families. - LHL
— Lee Hsien Loong (@leehsienloong) December 28, 2014
Another Malaysian Airlines plane supposedly missing. What's going on? Just hope there's no repeated affairs. #AirAsia
— Jigs (@Jigyasa_24) December 28, 2014The disappearance of QZ8501 is the third major incident involving an Asian airline this year.
MH370 went missing on March 8 with 239 passengers on board and was flying from Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing in China.
Despite an extensive search, no trace of the plane has yet been found.
Then in July, MH17 was shot down by a missile over rebel-held Ukraine with 28 Australians among the 298 dead.
AirAsia is Malaysia’s low-cost airline based in Kuala Lumpur, however the missing jet is from the Indonesian subsidiary.
AirAsia has changed its Facebook profile picture from red to grey after announcing the disappearance of the A320-200.
It’s chief executive Tony Fernandes wrote on Twitter: “Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We must stay strong.”
What a terrible year for aviation. Hoping against hope there's a happy outcome for missing Air Asia flight...
— James Reynolds (@EarthUncutTV) December 28, 2014Keep praying, keep hoping, keep believing. God has a plan. #PrayForQZ8501 #AirAsia
— AarghQid (@LuqmanAqid) December 28, 2014As well as the Malaysia and Indonesian subsidiaries AirAsia also operates out of Thailand and India.
It employs more than 15,000 people and, according to its website, carries 250 million passengers a year and operates 160 aircraft.
It has won the world’s best low cost airline award in the World Airline Survey by Skytrax since 2009.
An Emergency Call Centre has been set up for family or friends of those on board the aircraft. The number is: +622129850801.
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