Relatives at crisis center wait for news of their loved ones
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A SEARCH for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 is to resume this morning after aircraft and ships spent several hours last night searching Indonesian waters for any sign of the plane that disappeared with 162 people on board in bad weather.
Aircraft searching had called off the effort for the night and will resume today, said Achmad Toha of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency. Some ships were continuing the search overnight, he said.
The plane took off from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, yesterday morning and was about halfway to its destination, Singapore, when it vanished from radar.
The last communication between the pilot and air traffic control was at 6:13am, when the pilot “asked to avoid clouds by turning left and going higher to 10,360 meters.”
It was last seen on radar at 6:16am, and a minute later was no longer there, Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director general of transport, told reporters.
AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes flew to Surabaya and said at a press conference that the focus should be on the search and the families.
“We have no idea at the moment what went wrong,” said Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman who founded the regional low-cost carrier in 2001. “Let’s not speculate at the moment.”
It is the third major aviation incident involving Malaysia this year.
In March, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people, and in July, a jet from the same airline was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Indonesia and Singapore yesterday launched a search and rescue operation near Belitung Island in the Java Sea, the area where the jetliner lost contact with ground traffic control about 42 minutes after taking off from Surabaya.
Murjatmodjo said there was no distress signal from the cockpit of the twin-engine, single-aisle plane. But it is believed it may have been in airspace possibly thick with dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning.
“We hope we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible, and we hope that God will give us guidance to find it,” Murjatmodjo said.
Speaking 10 hours after the plane lost contact, Indonesia Vice President Jusuf Kalla expressed deep concern.
“It is most possible that it has experienced an accident,” he said.
AirAsia said in a statement that the plane was on its flight plan route.
However, it had requested a change due to weather before communication with the aircraft was lost. At the time, it was still under the control of Indonesian air traffic control.
A weather forecaster at the Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said dense storm clouds were detected up to 13,411 meters in the same area at the time the plane was reported to have lost contact.
“There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds,” he said.
The plane had an Indonesian captain and a French co-pilot, five cabin crew and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, AirAsia Indonesia said.
Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians.
At Surabaya airport, dozens of relatives sat in a room waiting for news, many of them talking on mobile phones and crying. Some looked dazed.
As word spread, more and more family members were arriving at the crisis center to wait for any news.
Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters that search and rescue efforts now involved the Indonesian army and the national Search and Rescue Agency as well as Singapore and Malaysia.
The Search and Rescue Agency’s operation chief, Major General Tatang Zaenudin, said 200 rescuers had been deployed to the east of Belitung Island.
Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto said three aircraft, including a surveillance plane, had been sent to the area.
The Singapore air force and the navy also searched with two C-130 planes.
Airbus said in a statement that the missing aircraft was delivered to AirAsia in October 2008, which would make it six years old. It said the plane had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights.
AirAsia said the plane had last undergone scheduled maintenance on November 16.
Fernandes stirred controversy earlier this year after incorrectly tweeting that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, now synonymous with one of aviation’s enduring mysteries, had landed safely.
William Waldock, an expert on air crash search and rescue with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, cautioned against drawing comparisons to the disappearance of flight MH370.
“I think we have to let this play out,” he said. “Hopefully, the airplane will get found, and if that happens, it will probably be in the next few hours. Until then, we have to reserve judgment.”
Circumstances bode well for finding the plane since the intended flight time was less than two hours and there is a known position at which the plane disappeared, he said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak tweeted: “Very sad to hear that AirAsia Indonesia QZ8501 is missing. My thoughts are with the families. Malaysia stands ready to help.”
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