Multinational hunt for missing AirAsia plane

[webfact]

FLIGHT QZ8501
Multinational hunt for missing plane
The Nation, Agencies

Indonesia, Australia, Singapore cooperate as search area expanded in Java Sea

BANGKOK: -- TEAMS from different countries began hunting yesterday for signs of an AirAsia plane that went missing off Indonesia with 162 people on board, though one top official warned it was likely at the bottom of the sea.

An object spotted during a sea search for the plane was not from the missing jet, Indonesia's vice president said yesterday, after reports that an Australian surveillance aircraft had seen something.

"It has been checked and no sufficient evidence was found to confirm what was reported," Jusuf Kalla told a press conference at Surabaya airport, from where the ill-fated plane departed on Sunday.

Kalla said there were 15 ships and 30 aircraft searching the area. "It is not an easy operation, especially in bad weather like this," he said.

Indonesian Air Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto said the search was now focused on a patch of oil spotted off Belitung Island in the Java Sea.

"We are making sure whether it was avtur [aviation turbine fuel] from the AirAsia plane or from a vessel, because that location is a shipping line," he said.

Australia, Singapore and Malaysia deployed planes and ships to help in the Indonesian search as anguished relatives waited for news of their loved ones more than a day after Flight QZ8501 disappeared over the Java Sea.

Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday expressed his condolences to the families of passengers aboard the missing jet. He said Thailand was ready to help Indonesia search for survivors or plane wreckage if necessary.

The Airbus A320-200 lost contact en route from Surabaya in East Java province to Singapore on Sunday after the crew requested a change of flight plan because of stormy weather, in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.

"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 Bambang Soelistyo said. "That's the preliminary suspicion, and it can develop based on the evaluation of the result of our search," he said.

Search teams are scouring an area where the sea is 40 to 50 metres deep, he said, adding that Indonesia was coordinating with other countries to access any equipment needed to scour the seabed.

"Due to the lack of technology that we have, I have coordinated with our foreign minister so we can borrow from other countries that have offered. They are the UK, France and the US," he said. "It is not easy to look for something underwater ... that will not break our spirit to continue searching, no way."

AirAsia said 155 of those on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesian, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France. The Frenchman was the co-pilot.

Air-traffic controllers lost contact with the twin-engine aircraft around an hour after it left Surabaya's Juanda International Airport at about 5.35am on Sunday. Shortly before the plane disappeared, the pilot asked to ascend by 6,000 feet to 38,000 feet (11,600 metres) to avoid heavy clouds, but his request was turned down because of another flight above him.

The search is focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, across from the island of Kalimantan, also known as Borneo. Soelistyo said the search area had been expanded northwards in the waters between Sumatra and Kalimantan.

"We added three sectors to the north of the [four] search areas we had yesterday," he said. "We are looking around Bangka, Belitung, Singkep, Karimata Strait, as well as the land area west of West Kalimantan."

Australia has sent an air force AP-3C Orion surveillance plane, while Singapore said it was deploying two C-130 aircraft in addition to naval ships already dispatched.

China, which had 152 citizens on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which is still missing, has also offered to help.

"Praying for safety"

The latest missing plane was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysia-based AirAsia - which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost-airline market.

Indonesia said it would review the company's operations.

"We will do a ground check as well as a review of AirAsia's operations in Indonesia to ensure that all its activities are better in the future," Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago with poor roads and railways, has seen explosive growth in low-cost air travel over recent years. But the air industry has been blighted by low safety standards in an area that also experiences extreme weather.

AirAsia, which has never suffered a fatal accident, said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on November 16. The company's shares fell 12 per cent at the open in Kuala Lumpur but recovered slightly to sit at 2.71 ringgit yesterday, down 7.82 per cent.

The plane's disappearance comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March with 239 on board, and in July its Flight MH17 was shot down over troubled Ukraine, killing all 298 on board.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/Multinational-hunt-for-missing-plane-30250953.html


-- The Nation 2014-12-30

[Halion]

This is all starting to get a bit pear shaped. Relatively small and accessible search area, shallow water yet no confirmed sightings of debris and not one article mentions sonar searching for the locator beacons which would be like church bells in such shallow water.

[webfact]

Indonesia widens search for missing AirAsia Flight QZ501



JAKARTA: -- The search for AirAsia flight QZ501 missing off Indonesia with 162 people on board was expanded on Monday, but one top official warned it was likely at the bottom of the sea, The Jakarta Globe reported.

Teams from Indonesia, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia resumed the search at dawn for the Indonesia AirAsia plane, which lost contact with air traffic control en route from Surabaya to Singapore on Sunday. It was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members — the majority of whom were Indonesian.

Seven helicopters, 11 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 ships have been deployed to search a 160 kilometer square, authorities said.

Monday’s search was expanded northwards into the waters between Sumatra and Kalimantan and now takes in Singkep island, the Karimata Strait and the northern reaches of West Kalimantan.

“We added three sectors to the north of the [four] search areas we had yesterday,” said Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

But Bambang told journalists the plane was most likely “at the bottom of the sea.”

Currently search teams are scouring an area where the sea is 40-50 meters deep, he said, adding that Indonesia was coordinating with other countries to access any equipment needed to scour the seabed.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/indonesia-widens-search-missing-airasia-flight-qz501


-- Thai PBS 2014-12-30

[HeijoshinCool]

Why is it, in numerous articles, that the pilot has been named, and even some of the passengers, but the co-pilot has never been named? He is always referred to as "the Frenchman."

Anybody read the "Frenchman's" name anywhere?

[DaveHKT]

Why is it, in numerous articles, that the pilot has been named, and even some of the passengers, but the co-pilot has never been named? He is always referred to as "the Frenchman."

Anybody read the "Frenchman's" name anywhere?

Remi Emmanuel Plesel according to BP

[Lite Beer]

Items resembling slide, plane door seen in AirAsia search

PANGKALUN BUN, Indonesia (AFP) - Items resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other objects were spotted during an aerial search Tuesday for missing AirAsia flight 8501, Indonesian officials said.

"We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph," Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto told a press conference.

"The position is 10 kilometres (six miles) from the location the plane was last captured by radar," he said.

He displayed 10 photos of objects resembling a plane door, emergency slide, and a square box-like object.

An AFP photographer on the same flight that spotted the debris said he had seen objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Items-resembling-slide-plane-door-seen-in-AirAsia--30250968.html

-- The Nation 2014-12-30

[alex8912]

I think they should "borrow" the other tech from the UK. USA and Frane NOW. Not tomorrow. I mean really , Australia and Malaysia are doing a miserable job with the missing flight from 10 months ago and are involved in this one!! Just doesn't make sense. Get the pros on this one.