Quest for AirAsia flight QZ8501 continues
Monday, December 29, 2014
AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been missing since last Sunday (December 28, 2014). The flight departed from Indonesia to Singapore, but lost the contact with the air traffic control in Jakarta on Sunday.
There has been no trace of the plane, carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members. The search quest was discontinued yesterdayat 7 pm local time due to darkness. The Indonesian Ministry of Transportation announced that the search shall continue today.
The contact with air traffic control was lost at 7:24 pm local time, about 42 minutes after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia. Shortly before, the pilot had asked if he could fly a different course due to bad weather; he asked permission to fly higher to avoid the clouds. Not long after, the aircraft disappeared from the radar. The pilot did not issue a distress signal.
According to local media, rescue services suspect the aircraft to have crashed into the ocean about 145 kilometers from the island of Belitung, situated halfway between Surabaya and Singapore. What went wrong is still completely unclear.
Passenger list
The Airbus 320-200 was originally set to land in Singapore at 8:30 pm local time. AirAsia has published a passenger list with the nationalities of the passengers onboard the flight from Indonesia to Singapore. It contains the names of about 155 passengers and seven crew members. Approximately 149 passengers from Indonesia, three from South Korea, one from Malaysia, one from Singapore and one from Britain were on board. Approximately 16 passengers were underage including an infant.
Java Sea
According to a spokesman of the Ministry of Transport, the plane is said to have lost contact as it flew over the Java Sea. This lies between Kalimantan and Java. A search and rescue operation was immediately put into motion by AirAsia. At Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, a crisis center has been set up for the relatives of the missing passengers, where they anxiously await news on the QZ8501 flight.
Written by: Team Flight-Delayed.com
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