Search for missing AirAsia Flight 8501 called off for another night
By Jenni Ryall 2014-12-29 01:03:01 UTC
UPDATED: 8:03 a.m. Eastern / 8:03 p.m. in Jakarta
The search for the missing AirAsia plane has been called off for another night after Indonesian officials said the objects that an Australian search aircraft spotted were not from the missing aircraft. It has been more than 24 hours since the Airbus A320-200 vanished with 162 people on board en route from Indonesia to Singapore.
See also: Missing AirAsia plane: Search operations suspended overnight
Earlier this afternoon, local time Jakarta, an Australian Orion aircraft found objects some 696 miles from where the plane lost contact. Officials initially thought the pieces could have been wreckage.
However, Indonesian officials said Monday that they believe the plane is at the bottom of the ocean.
"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," National Search and Rescue Agency Chief Bambag Soelistyo said, according to local media. "That's the preliminary suspicion and it can develop based on the evaluation of the result of our search."
Due to the lack of equipment and technology needed to search the floor of the Java Sea, where the plane vanished, Indonesia will borrow from the UK, France and U.S., he said.
Indonesia will review its AirAsia operations after the disappearance, according to Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan, Reuters reported.
"Much will be reviewed in terms of its business operations and in terms of air transportation business, so that there are safety improvements," he said in a press conference.
AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes, who is considered Malaysia's answer to Richard Branson, commented on Twitter about his pride in the way his team has handled the incident, saying his "heart bleeds" for the families of those on the flight.
The tweets follow his visit to Jakarta to check on the search response, before returning to families at the airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, where the missing plane departed.
The staff in Indonesia have been brave, strong, committed and doing 150 percent for all our guests. My pride for them is enormous.
— Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes) December 29, 2014
Keeping positive and staying strong. My heart bleeds for all the relatives of my crew and our passangers. Nothing is more important to us.
Poor weather is thought to be a contributing factor in the disappearance of flight QZ8501, which lost contact with Jakarta's air traffic control at 7:24 a.m. Singapore time on Sunday after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, according to AirAsia. It was due to land in Singapore two hours later.
The missing plane did not issue a distress signal and lost contact five minutes after one of the pilots requested to divert the flight path. The pilot was granted permission to turn left but denied the ability to climb to 38,000 feet from 32,000 feet, Transport Ministry aviation official Djoko Murkatmodjo told Indonesian newspaper Kompas.
AirAsia 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
The plane was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members including 137 adults, 17 children and one infant, according to an AirAsia Facebook statement. There were 149 Indonesian passengers on board and three passengers from South Korea (traveling from Singapore, United Kingdom and Malaysia, respectively).
There were six crew members from Indonesia and one member from France. There were also 23 no-shows for the flight, according to the manifest.
CNN reported that officials are briefed relatives of the missing behind closed doors at Surabaya Airport, Indonesia on Monday morning.
#URGENT: At Surabaya airport, officials briefing dozens of families of those missing on #AsiaAir Flight #QZ8501. Briefing is closed door.
— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) December 29, 2014
Sunu Widyatmoko, CEO of AirAsia Indonesia said in a statement: "We are deeply shocked and saddened by this incident. We are cooperating with the relevant authorities to the fullest extent to determine the cause of this incident. In the meantime, our main priority is keeping the families of our passengers and colleagues informed on the latest developments."
A file photo of an AirAsia Airbus A320-200.
Image: AP Images/Associated Press
First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center Commander at the Surabaya air force base, said Monday that 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were searching an area of east and southeast Belitung island and nearby waters.
Setiaya says visibility was good. "God willing, we can find it soon," Setiayana told The Associated Press.
Relatives of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 comfort each other at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014.
Malaysia, Singapore and Australia have all sent assistance to the region. Malaysia's Minister of Transport Liow Tiong Lai said the Malaysian government deployed three ships and one plane to the Belitung island region. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said in a statement that military planes and vessels would join the search, while the Australian Defence Force announced it would deploy a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft to the region.
Msian Govt has set up a rescue coordination centre at subang & deploying assets now to aid the SAR & coordinating with Indonesian led effort
— Liow Tiong Lai (@liowtionglai) December 28, 2014
The search will be focused near the island of Belitung off the east coast of Sumatra, at the coordinates 03 degrees 22'15" South and 109 degrees 41'28" East, where the plane is thought to have disappeared, according to a statement by Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
A tough year for Southeast Asia travel
The plane's disappearance and suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia, although this is the first major incident for AirAsia. The Malaysia-based carrier's loss — Indonesia AirAsia is 49 per cent owned by AirAsia — comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine.
As the stock market opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shares for AirAsia had dropped by more than 10% from the previous close price and remained 8.2% lower at 9:38 a.m. local time,according to Bloomberg.
At the Surabaya airport, passengers' relatives pored over the plane's manifest, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list.
The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia's Lombok island, and had been happy to get the work. "He just told me, 'Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,'" Adityas recalled, holding her grandson tight while weeping uncontrollably.
A relative of AirAsia flight QZ8501 passengers weeps as she waits for the latest news on the missing jetliner at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2014.
Image: Trisnadi/Associated Press
Sunardi, who is a forecaster at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said dense storm clouds were detected up to 13,400 meters (44,000 feet) in the area at the time.
"There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds," said Sunardi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.
Global rainfall accumulation during a three hour period on Dec. 28, 2014. The area of interest for the AirAsia flight is circled in orange.
Image: NASA/modified by Mashable
Airline pilots routinely fly around thunderstorms, said John Cox, a former accident investigator. Using on-board radar, flight crews can typically see a storm forming from more than 100 miles away.
In such cases, pilots have plenty of time to find a way around the storm cluster or look for gaps to fly through, he said. "It's not like you have to make an instantaneous decision," Cox said. Storms can be hundreds of miles long, but "because a jet moves at 8 miles a minute, if you to go 100 miles out of your way, it's not a problem."
Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
Topics: Australia, flight 8501, Indonesia, World