AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Indonesia to Singapore missing

[MrWorldwide]

The news in Aus mentioned some 23 ticket holders failed to make it on this plane.

Hard to believe we are here reading of yet another plane crash. Just tragic.

Link please ? 23 seems like a lot of people......

Not on a budget airline - I've failed to show for several return flights out of BKK with AirAsia - promo flights are usually so cheap that I dont even bother cancelling. You might think that after 8 months someone in Australia might be wondering if I was ever coming back, but they couldnt give a hoot and I wouldnt have it any other way.

[Basil B]

The news in Aus mentioned some 23 ticket holders failed to make it on this plane.

Hard to believe we are here reading of yet another plane crash. Just tragic.

Link please ? 23 seems like a lot of people......

Not if they were from connecting flights...

[Prbkk]

The news in Aus mentioned some 23 ticket holders failed to make it on this plane.

Hard to believe we are here reading of yet another plane crash. Just tragic.

Link please ? 23 seems like a lot of people......

I believe this is incorrect. The passenger manifest put online ( but now delted?) listed 3 "no shows", all from one (very luck) family

No, I've seen the passenger list on line, and it clearly shows 23 'no shows'. Roughly 50/50 male/female passengers and crew.

Thankyou for confirming.

23 of the luckiest people in the world tonight.

Yes, I was wrong ...the link to the manifest is #61 on page 3

[Commerce]

The news in Aus mentioned some 23 ticket holders failed to make it on this plane.

Hard to believe we are here reading of yet another plane crash. Just tragic.

Link please ? 23 seems like a lot of people......

http://rt.com/news/218155-missing-airasia-flight-updates/

[slipperylobster]

"It is already dark, ships and aircraft is sent back to the base" Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference".

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/12/28/180832/2788464/10/hari-mulai-gelap-kapal-dan-pesawat-pencari-qz8501-kembali-ke-pangkalan

Just pathetic in the face of tragedy. They knew by 7.00am local time, if not sooner, that it was likely this plane was down. They could have had the Singaporean C130 on the site, in the area at least, by 11.00am.

Air Asia, I believe, is Headquartered out of Malaysia. Is this not true? I am not surprised that they did not ask Singapore to help out with a C130. I would have. But based on their performance with Malaysian Airlines missing flight....not shocked. Three Malaysian based airline incidents makes for a banner year.

Edited December 28, 2014 by slipperylobster

[Commerce]

The news in Aus mentioned some 23 ticket holders failed to make it on this plane.

Hard to believe we are here reading of yet another plane crash. Just tragic.

Link please ? 23 seems like a lot of people......

I believe this is incorrect. The passenger manifest put online ( but now delted?) listed 3 "no shows", all from one (very luck) family

http://rt.com/news/218155-missing-airasia-flight-updates/ 23 is correct.

[BernieOnTour]

The news in Aus mentioned some 23 ticket holders failed to make it on this plane.

Hard to believe we are here reading of yet another plane crash. Just tragic.

Link please ? 23 seems like a lot of people......

Not if they were from connecting flights...

AirAsia is a budget airline, so no usual connected flights with check-thru luggage. The flight are handled separately.

[Briggsy]

"It is already dark, ships and aircraft is sent back to the base" Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference".

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/12/28/180832/2788464/10/hari-mulai-gelap-kapal-dan-pesawat-pencari-qz8501-kembali-ke-pangkalan

Just pathetic in the face of tragedy. They knew by 7.00am local time, if not sooner, that it was likely this plane was down. They could have had the Singaporean C130 on the site, in the area at least, by 11.00am.

Air Asia, I believe, is Headquartered out of Malaysia. Is this not true? I am not surprised that they did not ask Singapore to help out with a C130. I would have. But based on their performance with Malaysian Airlines missing flight....not shocked. Three Malaysian based airline incidents makes for a banner year.

It is not the airline who decides who assists but national authorities, in this case, Indonesia.

[Konini]

I wonder how many planes the airline industry has to " lose" before they finally install

real time tracking that is broadcast back to their home base.... In this day and age

of electronic marvels, losing a plane and then go to try and find it is insane.....

I am not talking about the complex engine ACARS system, but rather just a simple ongoing

location system.

Note to self : Do not fly on a Malaysian Airline. They seem to be having a run of bad luck....

I agree it is quite ridiculous, google can track you to a toilet in any part of the world to within 5 feet of a urinal yet we are seeing aircraft with all this technology getting completely lost

I've had GPS turned on while flying and it tells absolutely everything about my position speed altitude heading all in real time - go figure

I've often thought about this since the Malaysian plane went missing - we were in Penang airport waiting to fly back to Bangkok when it was first reported on the news.

My phone, which is worth all of a hundred dollars or so can be traced to the thief's bedroom, yet an aircraft worth just a little bit more doesn't have the same technology my cheap phone has. I know it's a bit different, but surely not that different. It's a chip! Something which came as a shock to me and many others around the world was the broadly held assumption that the pilot was in direct contact with his own control room if nothing else. What if there's a funny noise and he just forgets to mention it for a while as often happens with cars (me anyway, I've driven around with strange bumps and knocks for a few weeks before remembering to say something about it. Yes, there should be and most likely is a system in place which requires both the pilot and his off-sider to write it down in a log book or similar, but that is open to human error - if they got distracted, there is a possibility that they would forget to write it up. The other big shock was that the tape on the voice recorder is only ever 120 minutes long as it overwrites itself after 2 hours. Multi-tetra-byte storage has been widely available for long enough for it not to be expensive - you can get a fair few hours of recorded video on a single tetra-byte and voice only should require much less storage. I know it has to be shock proof and water proof, but 2 hours? Really?

Sadly, none of these things come to our attention until the aftermath of a disaster, but then you'd think that governments and insurance companies would insist on anything like this being rectified almost immediately it becomes apparent.

Also, very sad to see the conspiracy theorists are having a field day (on the internet in general, not ThaiVisa).

[bangrak]

AirAsia says search operation underway for missing plane

KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysian airline AirAsia said a search and rescue operation was underway Sunday for flight QZ8501 which went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore.

"At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available," the airline said.

The missing plane was an Airbus A320-200, it said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/AirAsia-says-search-operation-underway-for-missing-30250826.html

-- The Nation 2014-12-28

Indonesia AirAsia in all other reports, in The Nation: 'Malaysian airline AirAsia', so, Thai AirAsia is also a Malaysian Company, is it? Hmmm...

[Xircal]

The FAA issued Emergency Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2014-25-51 on 10 December 2014 which may be a contributory factor in this tragedy. It applies to Airbus A318, A319, A320 and A321 models and concerns, quote: "A blockage of two Angle of Attack probes during climb". It goes on to warn that, quote: "This condition, if not corrected, could result in loss of control of the aeroplane".

Edit: corrected erroneously quoted "A310" to "A319".

Edited December 28, 2014 by Xircal

[bkkjames]

AirAsia says search operation underway for missing plane

KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysian airline AirAsia said a search and rescue operation was underway Sunday for flight QZ8501 which went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore.

"At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available," the airline said.

The missing plane was an Airbus A320-200, it said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/AirAsia-says-search-operation-underway-for-missing-30250826.html

-- The Nation 2014-12-28

Indonesia AirAsia in all other reports, in The Nation: 'Malaysian airline AirAsia', so, Thai AirAsia is also a Malaysian Company, is it? Hmmm...

I believe the word you so desperate want to find is called subsidiary - not that it really matters at all in the context of this story.

[MrWorldwide]

Not Thaivisa ? in the main, yes, but I thought the Bermuda Triangle comment was a tad premature - 2 aircraft in one of the busiest regions in the world (Surabaya is the second largest city in the largest economy in SEA) and suddenly we're watching an episode of the Twilight Zone ?? I'd like those odds transferred to my next taxi ride to Bangkok.

[slipperylobster]

AirAsia says search operation underway for missing plane

KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysian airline AirAsia said a search and rescue operation was underway Sunday for flight QZ8501 which went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore.

"At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available," the airline said.

The missing plane was an Airbus A320-200, it said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/AirAsia-says-search-operation-underway-for-missing-30250826.html

-- The Nation 2014-12-28

Indonesia AirAsia in all other reports, in The Nation: 'Malaysian airline AirAsia', so, Thai AirAsia is also a Malaysian Company, is it? Hmmm...

Pretty much clears up where the company operates out of....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirAsia

It is sounding all so familiar.

[daveAustin]

The passenger manifest put online ( but now delted?) listed 3 "no shows", all from one (very luck) family

Imagine the anguish of missing your flight and then the utter disbelief that it went down. Life changing.

[Basil B]

I wonder how many planes the airline industry has to " lose" before they finally install

real time tracking that is broadcast back to their home base.... In this day and age

of electronic marvels, losing a plane and then go to try and find it is insane.....

I am not talking about the complex engine ACARS system, but rather just a simple ongoing

location system.

Note to self : Do not fly on a Malaysian Airline. They seem to be having a run of bad luck....

This aircraft had ASD-B, it does just that, reports the aircraft's GPS position and more, every second, and it was still working one minute after radar was lost.

Note to you: This was not a Malaysian airline...

Edited December 28, 2014 by Basil B

[bkkjames]

The passenger manifest put online ( but now delted?) listed 3 "no shows", all from one (very luck) family

Imagine the anguish of missing your flight and then the utter disbelief that it went down. Life changing.

not as life changing than those who made the flight - but I get your point.

[MrWorldwide]

@bkkjames, just like thousands of condos, AirAsia Intl cant own 51% of the company, but they do own 45% of Thai AirAsia. I believe they also own the rights to the branding on the side of those aircraft. Might not be a Malaysian airline as such, but definitely a franchise version of AA International.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_AirAsia

[MaxYakov]

I always assumed that avoiding clouds - storms - turbulence etc was for passenger comfort as opposed to a threat to the aircraft, not saying they are indestructible but I honestly believed it would take something in the extreme (tornado) to actually down one of these modern aircraft, maybe I'm wrong

History tells us that most if not all air accidents are caused by either pilot error - mechanical failure - or maintenance error, all of which point at a human in the chain, ok we have the odd situation of birds entering both engines or similar

NOAA 6/2002 - Study of Weather-Related Fatal Aviation Accidents

Abstract

This study is a statistical summary of all fatal aircraft accidents that occurred in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) and coastal waters which involved general aviation and small commuter aviation aircraft from 1995-2000. These data summarize fatal accidents in which the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited weather to be a cause or contributing factor. From 1995 to 2000, 4018 people died in aircraft accidents; of which weather related accidents accounted for 1,380 deaths. Essentially, the NTSB cited weather as a factor in 3 of every 10 fatal aircraft accidents during this period.

The National Weather Service Vision states a need to strive to eliminate weather-related fatalities." The NWS theme for 2002 is "Working Together to Save Lives." The yearly average for weather-related fatalities in general aviation (230) is comparable to the combined fatalities due to lightning, tornadoes and floods (213). Results of this study will provide a statistical data base that justifies an expanded outreach program. This program will be targeted to the general aviation community.

Since this report is over 12 years old and uses only NTSB data (not world-wide), it does not include AF447 and many other weather-related aviation accidents.

ok perhaps I should have elaborated, not including tale off and landing were weather can play a big part, this aircraft was flying at over 30k feet and cruising - a very different situation

Yes, high-altitude flights have their own particular characteristics, which can also have a "weather factor".

We have, for starters, two relatively recent and disastrous, weather-related, high-altitude upsets with total fatalities of around 400:

Air France Flight 447 Wiki

Pulkuvo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 Wiki

But weather was not the only factor in both.

[Cheops]

I wonder how many planes the airline industry has to " lose" before they finally install

real time tracking that is broadcast back to their home base.... In this day and age

of electronic marvels, losing a plane and then go to try and find it is insane.....

I am not talking about the complex engine ACARS system, but rather just a simple ongoing

location system.

Note to self : Do not fly on a Malaysian Airline. They seem to be having a run of bad luck....

I agree it is quite ridiculous, google can track you to a toilet in any part of the world to within 5 feet of a urinal yet we are seeing aircraft with all this technology getting completely lost

I've had GPS turned on while flying and it tells absolutely everything about my position speed altitude heading all in real time - go figure

I've often thought about this since the Malaysian plane went missing - we were in Penang airport waiting to fly back to Bangkok when it was first reported on the news.

My phone, which is worth all of a hundred dollars or so can be traced to the thief's bedroom, yet an aircraft worth just a little bit more doesn't have the same technology my cheap phone has. I know it's a bit different, but surely not that different. It's a chip! Something which came as a shock to me and many others around the world was the broadly held assumption that the pilot was in direct contact with his own control room if nothing else. What if there's a funny noise and he just forgets to mention it for a while as often happens with cars (me anyway, I've driven around with strange bumps and knocks for a few weeks before remembering to say something about it. Yes, there should be and most likely is a system in place which requires both the pilot and his off-sider to write it down in a log book or similar, but that is open to human error - if they got distracted, there is a possibility that they would forget to write it up. The other big shock was that the tape on the voice recorder is only ever 120 minutes long as it overwrites itself after 2 hours. Multi-tetra-byte storage has been widely available for long enough for it not to be expensive - you can get a fair few hours of recorded video on a single tetra-byte and voice only should require much less storage. I know it has to be shock proof and water proof, but 2 hours? Really?

Sadly, none of these things come to our attention until the aftermath of a disaster, but then you'd think that governments and insurance companies would insist on anything like this being rectified almost immediately it becomes apparent.

Also, very sad to see the conspiracy theorists are having a field day (on the internet in general, not ThaiVisa).

Yes, your and my phone can be tracked in real time, but you forget one thing: to be able to track someone's phone, that phone will need to have a way of communicating his gps or cell info. Over land that is mostly possible, but in the air over the water is a different story.

[sweatalot]

"It is already dark, ships and aircraft is sent back to the base" Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference".

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/12/28/180832/2788464/10/hari-mulai-gelap-kapal-dan-pesawat-pencari-qz8501-kembali-ke-pangkalan

Just pathetic in the face of tragedy. They knew by 7.00am local time, if not sooner, that it was likely this plane was down. They could have had the Singaporean C130 on the site, in the area at least, by 11.00am.

You are totally right, and of cause, sun dawn around 6pm is a total surprise in the tropics...

But George already reported the reason:

KNKT: The reason why we can't accept foreign help is because

1) We still haven't able to confirm the plane location

2) Efficiency, we still want to rely on our own sources

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/12/28/174822/2788454/10/knkt-tawaran-bantuan-internasional-belum-bisa-kami-terima

"1) We still haven't able to confirm the plane location

2) Efficiency, we still want to rely on our own sources "

unneccessarily starting 7 hours too late - a clear failure to render assistance

I wonder if there is any international justice to make the jerks responsible?

Edited December 28, 2014 by sweatalot

[krisb]

I wonder how many planes the airline industry has to " lose" before they finally install

real time tracking that is broadcast back to their home base.... In this day and age

of electronic marvels, losing a plane and then go to try and find it is insane.....

I am not talking about the complex engine ACARS system, but rather just a simple ongoing

location system.

Note to self : Do not fly on a Malaysian Airline. They seem to be having a run of bad luck....

I agree it is quite ridiculous, google can track you to a toilet in any part of the world to within 5 feet of a urinal yet we are seeing aircraft with all this technology getting completely lost

I've had GPS turned on while flying and it tells absolutely everything about my position speed altitude heading all in real time - go figure

I've often thought about this since the Malaysian plane went missing - we were in Penang airport waiting to fly back to Bangkok when it was first reported on the news.

My phone, which is worth all of a hundred dollars or so can be traced to the thief's bedroom, yet an aircraft worth just a little bit more doesn't have the same technology my cheap phone has. I know it's a bit different, but surely not that different. It's a chip! Something which came as a shock to me and many others around the world was the broadly held assumption that the pilot was in direct contact with his own control room if nothing else. What if there's a funny noise and he just forgets to mention it for a while as often happens with cars (me anyway, I've driven around with strange bumps and knocks for a few weeks before remembering to say something about it. Yes, there should be and most likely is a system in place which requires both the pilot and his off-sider to write it down in a log book or similar, but that is open to human error - if they got distracted, there is a possibility that they would forget to write it up. The other big shock was that the tape on the voice recorder is only ever 120 minutes long as it overwrites itself after 2 hours. Multi-tetra-byte storage has been widely available for long enough for it not to be expensive - you can get a fair few hours of recorded video on a single tetra-byte and voice only should require much less storage. I know it has to be shock proof and water proof, but 2 hours? Really?

Sadly, none of these things come to our attention until the aftermath of a disaster, but then you'd think that governments and insurance companies would insist on anything like this being rectified almost immediately it becomes apparent.

Also, very sad to see the conspiracy theorists are having a field day (on the internet in general, not ThaiVisa).

I've also heard Rolls Royce who make the jet engines fit tracking devices into them so if they do go down, the engines can be retrieved and Rolls Royce can't be blamed for a dodgy engine.

Anyone know if this is true?

[Commerce]

You are totally right, and of cause, sun dawn around 6pm is a total surprise in the tropics...

But George already reported the reason:

KNKT: The reason why we can't accept foreign help is because

1) We still haven't able to confirm the plane location

2) Efficiency, we still want to rely on our own sources

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/12/28/174822/2788454/10/knkt-tawaran-bantuan-internasional-belum-bisa-kami-terima

"1) We still haven't able to confirm the plane location

2) Efficiency, we still want to rely on our own sources "

unneccessarily starting 7 hours too late - a clear failure to render assistance

I wonder if there is any international justice possible to punish the jerks?

And most probably all down to the ludicrous 'Asian saving face'. - Tragic!

[EyesWideOpen]

I wonder how many planes the airline industry has to " lose" before they finally install

real time tracking that is broadcast back to their home base.... In this day and age

of electronic marvels, losing a plane and then go to try and find it is insane.....

I am not talking about the complex engine ACARS system, but rather just a simple ongoing

location system.

Note to self : Do not fly on a Malaysian Airline. They seem to be having a run of bad luck....

This aircraft had ASD-B, it does just that, reports the aircraft's GPS position and more, every second, and it was still working one minute after radar was lost.

Note to you: This was not a Malaysian airline...

Well, it is headquartered in Malaysia..... Thus making it a Malaysian airline. The same way

you would refer to United Airlines as an American airline. Where do you think it is from out of curiosity ?

Not sure about technical aspects of that plane, but if it had ASD-B reporting its position,

seems it would be a simple matter of sending SAR resources straight to the last point.

Edited December 28, 2014 by EyesWideOpen

[Commerce]

I wonder how many planes the airline industry has to " lose" before they finally install

real time tracking that is broadcast back to their home base.... In this day and age

of electronic marvels, losing a plane and then go to try and find it is insane.....

I am not talking about the complex engine ACARS system, but rather just a simple ongoing

location system.

Note to self : Do not fly on a Malaysian Airline. They seem to be having a run of bad luck....

I agree it is quite ridiculous, google can track you to a toilet in any part of the world to within 5 feet of a urinal yet we are seeing aircraft with all this technology getting completely lost

I've had GPS turned on while flying and it tells absolutely everything about my position speed altitude heading all in real time - go figure

I've often thought about this since the Malaysian plane went missing - we were in Penang airport waiting to fly back to Bangkok when it was first reported on the news.

My phone, which is worth all of a hundred dollars or so can be traced to the thief's bedroom, yet an aircraft worth just a little bit more doesn't have the same technology my cheap phone has. I know it's a bit different, but surely not that different. It's a chip! Something which came as a shock to me and many others around the world was the broadly held assumption that the pilot was in direct contact with his own control room if nothing else. What if there's a funny noise and he just forgets to mention it for a while as often happens with cars (me anyway, I've driven around with strange bumps and knocks for a few weeks before remembering to say something about it. Yes, there should be and most likely is a system in place which requires both the pilot and his off-sider to write it down in a log book or similar, but that is open to human error - if they got distracted, there is a possibility that they would forget to write it up. The other big shock was that the tape on the voice recorder is only ever 120 minutes long as it overwrites itself after 2 hours. Multi-tetra-byte storage has been widely available for long enough for it not to be expensive - you can get a fair few hours of recorded video on a single tetra-byte and voice only should require much less storage. I know it has to be shock proof and water proof, but 2 hours? Really?

Sadly, none of these things come to our attention until the aftermath of a disaster, but then you'd think that governments and insurance companies would insist on anything like this being rectified almost immediately it becomes apparent.

Also, very sad to see the conspiracy theorists are having a field day (on the internet in general, not ThaiVisa).

I've also heard Rolls Royce who make the jet engines fit tracking devices into them so if they do go down, the engines can be retrieved and Rolls Royce can't be blamed for a dodgy engine.

Anyone know if this is true?

They fit engine monitoring devices, which report engine fuel usage, temperatures and operating conditions - in order to recommend servicing plans.

They don't fit tracking devices, as such, that say where the engine is in space/time.

[Konini]

Yes, your and my phone can be tracked in real time, but you forget one thing: to be able to track someone's phone, that phone will need to have a way of communicating his gps or cell info. Over land that is mostly possible, but in the air over the water is a different story.

I realise it would have to be done by satellite and that it wouldn't be cheap, but the amount of money these flying taxi's are worth would surely make it sensible to have constant voice contact. If nothing else I would have thought that those who take the risk on insuring them would insist as it might give them an out when it comes to paying - if technical they could recover money from the company involved and if wilfully shot down there may be no cover (as there is with personal insurance which almost always has a clause covering acts of terrorism and/or civil unrest. With the amount of money that insurance companies could potentially save it's rather surprising that they don't insist.

Until they find MH370 they have no idea why it went down, it will only be known when the black box is eventually recovered so insurance companies will have had to take a hit in at least the short-term I imagine. They would always be able to sue the spare parts or airline manufacturer later if necessary to recover money, but they would never be able to recover any compensation that were paid to victims' families.

It's all very sad, and not something we worry about when flying. While I am of the opinion that when the Big Fella Upstairs has my name on the clipboard, it's time to go and there's nothing I can do about it except hope that it's quick and painless, I would hate my family to not be able to get any closure because they didn't have a body, something I'm told is very important especially for parents. I honestly think that something like that would kill my elderly mother.

[Mrjlh]

The danger for the aircraft is not "Lightening" it is "Hail". If enough hail gets sucked into the engines it stalls. In engine testing you can shoot water directly from a fire hose into a jet engine and it will keep running but inject ice...bad things happen. Also a A320 also has a "ditch switch" for water landings . The pilot if he able too can ditch in water and the plane floats. But now I'm hearing they found wreckage but that's unconfirmed.

Would you indulge me by taking the time to explain this in a way that untechnical types can understand please; it sounds very interesting.

Because planes fly over water Boeing decided to add this feature to planes they produce. It's called the "Ditch Switch". In layman's terms it prevents all the doors from being opened or any "sealed door" on the plane thereby allowing the plane to float. It can be deactivated if need be. It's not perfect but if the pilot is able to ditch without causing major damage the plane it stays afloat for a considerable amount of time. Once people are calm, the doors can be opened and rescue slides become "Rafts" and will hold a lot people in each one. The plane that Capt Scully flew into the New York river had it but it was not activated and if it was he didn't remember it. Still the plane stayed afloat and was actually towed to a pier.

[balo]

Lets hope this thread will not turn into 100's of pages like Malaysian airlines did, everyone is thinking the wreckage will be located within 24 hours and then they found....nothing.

But let's hope for the best .

[chrisinth]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

"It is already dark, ships and aircraft is sent back to the base" Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference".

Source: http://news.detik.com/read/2014/12/28/180832/2788464/10/hari-mulai-gelap-kapal-dan-pesawat-pencari-qz8501-kembali-ke-pangkalan

Unless the seas are above force 8 - 9, why would you send ships back to base if a search area has been allocated?

[Basil B]

The danger for the aircraft is not "Lightening" it is "Hail". If enough hail gets sucked into the engines it stalls. In engine testing you can shoot water directly from a fire hose into a jet engine and it will keep running but inject ice...bad things happen. Also a A320 also has a "ditch switch" for water landings . The pilot if he able too can ditch in water and the plane floats. But now I'm hearing they found wreckage but that's unconfirmed.

Would you indulge me by taking the time to explain this in a way that untechnical types can understand please; it sounds very interesting.

Because planes fly over water Boeing decided to add this feature to planes they produce. It's called the "Ditch Switch". In layman's terms it prevents all the doors from being opened or any "sealed door" on the plane thereby allowing the plane to float. It can be deactivated if need be. It's not perfect but if the pilot is able to ditch without causing major damage the plane it stays afloat for a considerable amount of time. Once people are calm, the doors can be opened and rescue slides become "Rafts" and will hold a lot people in each one. The plane that Capt Scully flew into the New York river had it but it was not activated and if it was he didn't remember it. Still the plane stayed afloat and was actually towed to a pier.

It was Airbus who introduced the "Ditch Switch" and it has to be activated before ditching...

Capt Scully did not get that far in his check lists to activate before ditching his Airbus A320-200 in the Hudsom River