Contact with AirAsia flight QZ8501 bound for Singapore from Surabaya lost

class="headline" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1419785217767_1890" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 26px; line-height: 1.21em; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Search for missing AirAsia jet #QZ8501 bound for Singapore from Indonesia suspended

Search and locate efforts were launched but Indonesia later suspended the operation as darkness fell. The national search and rescue agency said the operation will resume at first light on Monday morning, with the search area expanded to include mountainous areas on land.

Earlier, AirAsia released a statement listing 162 people on board, with 138 adults, 16 children and one infant making up 155 passengers along with seven crew members (two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer). 

The passengers comprise one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one British, three South Koreans and 149 Indonesians, while the crew consists of six Indonesians and one French (the co-pilot). See the full manifest here.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) confirmed that the Singaporean on board the missing flight is a two year-old girl travelling with her father, the British national. 

A Changi Airport staff holds up a sign to direct possible next-of-kins of passengers of AirAsia flight QZ 8501 from Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, at Changi Airport in Singapore December

QZ8501 lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control at 7:55am local time, 42 minutes after departure and an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore.

Reuters reports that the aircraft was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when it went missing without a distress signal.

The plane was on the submitted flight plan route before it asked for permission to deviate to avoid "bad weather" described by officials as dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning.

"The plane requested to the air traffic control to fly to the left side which was approved, but their request to fly to 38,000 feet level from 32,000 feet could not be approved at that time due to a traffic, there was a flight above, and five minutes later the flight disappeared from radar," said an Indonesian air transport official.

The captain in command had a substantial total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours, said AirAsia, adding that the jet underwent its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.

Air Asia chief Tony Fernandes confirmed the plane had been given the all-clear by aviation technicians, was in "good condition" and "has never had any problems whatsoever".

Indonesia responded by dispatching seven aircrafts, four navy ships and six boats from its search and rescue agency. It has also received offers of support from Australia, Singapore, Britain, South Korea and Malaysia so far.

A C130 plane was deployed by the Republic of Singapore Air Force in the afternoon, with another of its aircraft due to join the search on Monday morning along with four vessels from the Republic of Singapore Navy. 

In a statement late Sunday afternoon, the CAAS said that the next-of-kin of the Singaporean on board were contacted and were at the Changi Airport Relatives Holding Area (RHA).

"They are being provided with all necessary assistance and support," CAAS said. "Assistance and support are likewise being provided to the relatives and friends of affected passengers who are at the RHA."

According to the Changi Airport Group, as of 6:30pm on Sunday, 47 relatives and friends of 57 passengers on board the missing flight have registered at the holding area.

"Help and support are being provided to them at the RHA by 36 Changi Airport Group (CAG) care officers and four counsellors from the Ministry of Social and Famiy Development," it said, adding that other staff from AirAsia, airport partners and officials from the Indonesia embassy in Singapore were also assisting.

According to Airbus, the missing A320-200 is a twin-engine single-aisle aircraft seating up to 180 passengers in a single-class configuration.

It was registered as PK-AXC and was delivered to AirAsia from the production line in October 2008. Powered by CFM 56-5B engines, it had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights.

Airbus said it would provide full assistance to authorities in charge of the investigation.

AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre that is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft. The number is: +622129850801.

AirAsia will release further information as soon as it becomes available. Updated information will also be posted on the AirAsia website at www.airasia.com.

(Correction: This article initially identified the aircraft as an A380. It is an A320.)

Source

class="title Font-A-6-110" data-reactid=".20an6nip14w.$cover-mosaic-transition-group.$=1$cover-mosaic-0:0.$article-106416418947.0:$Pos-r.$article-inner-container.$inset-container.$grid-template.0.$col-left.$content.$grid-content.0.0.0.0" id="yui_3_15_0_1_1419795940149_722" style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 32px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.1; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Two Families Escape Disaster By Missing Doomed Air Asia Flight class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1419795748770_2063" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; line-height: 42px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"
Two families are thanking their lucky stars that they missed their bookings on doomed Air Asia flight QZ 8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, which lost contact with air traffic control over the Java Sea yesterday.
A sick family member saved the lives of Chandra Susanto, his wife Inge, and their three children Christopher,10, Nadine, 7, and Felix, 5.
The family, who live in Surabaya, were booked on the plane to visit Susanto’s father. ”My father became ill so we had to cancel our flight,” Susanto told Daily Mail Australia. “We had been planning our holiday to Singapore since March 2014 so it was a great surprise for us when we cancelled our holiday yesterday.”
Susanto learned that his family had narrowly averted disaster only when his terrified sister phoned to see if the family was okay.
"I am very thankful to God for his mercy for me and my family," he said. "But I am so sad and very sorry for the people on the plane.
"They were just traveling to Singapore, maybe with their family, maybe for a holiday. And now they are lost," he continued. "Our lives have changed. We are so grateful. We have an opportunity to be the best people we can and to help others. We are so thankful to God.”
It was a missed email that saved the lives of Ari Putro Cahyono and nine of his family members.
Cahyono and his family had tickets on flight QZ 8501, which was originally set to take off from Juanda International Airport at 7:30 a.m. local time. The departure time on the flight was rescheduled to 5:20 a.m., but Cahyono never read the email alerting him of the change. He and his family showed up at the airport at 5:30am on Dec. 27 – 10 minutes after the fateful flight took off.

Cahyono and family were booked on QZ 8501, just as the Susantos were, their ticket shown here

The airline offered Cahyono and his family seats on the next flight to Singapore, but by then news of QZ 8501’s disappearance had spread. “Me and my family then decided to cancel the trip,” he told Kompas.com. 
One family seems not to have been as fortunate — that of Chin-Man Choi. The British man missing on Air Asia flight QZ 8501 reportedly bought his tickets at the last minute. He is believed to have been traveling with his 2-year-old daughter, Zoe, to reunite with his wife and young son who had taken an earlier flight to Singapore.
Meanwhile, all the families of the reported 162 passengers and crew members on board QZ8501 desperately wait for news. A search and rescue mission by the Singapore air force and navy concentrated around the Java Sea is scheduled to resume around midnight local time. Source
class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1419795748770_2063" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; line-height: 42px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Vacation Turns Into Nightmare for Bride-to-Be With Missing PlaneIt was supposed to be their last vacation together before they got married. Instead, it has turned into a nightmare vigil in Singapore for news about a missing plane.
Louise Sidharta, 25, heard about the AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA) plane that lost contact on her way to the airport in Surabaya, Indonesia. She knew her fiancé and his family had taken an earlier flight to Singapore, where they were all scheduled to holiday together. Soon, her worst fears were confirmed.
A multination search was partially halted after a day of scouring yielded no clues as to what happened to Flight QZ8501, which took off from Surabaya with 155 passengers and seven crew on board. The plane lost contact with the tower early in the day. The journey to Singapore usually takes about two hours.
At Singapore's Changi Airport, where bright Christmas decorations are still up, a holding area has been set up for relatives and friends of the passengers. Sidharta was ushered there earlier today, wheeling her bag along.
Sidharta said her fiancé, Alain, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, was traveling with his parents and three brothers. She didn't provide further details. The passenger manifest listed an Alain Oktavianus.
"We had planned to marry in May next year," Sidharta told reporters. "We are not thinking negatively right now. We are only having positive thoughts."
Relatives and friends who had earlier registered at the holding area have left for the night, Changi Airport said. Sixteen have taken up an offer to fly to Surabaya tonight, while the rest have gone home or to a hotel, it said.
Food, BlanketsThe holding area, which was guarded by security, had staff from AirAsia and airport partners, as well as officials from the Indonesian embassy in Singapore, Changi Airport said earlier. Those in the holding area had been given food, water and blankets, according to Changi Airport spokesman Robin Goh.
Today's incident is a painful reminder for those who lost families and friends on two planes operated by state-run carrier Malaysian Airline System Bhd. (MAS) Flight 370 vanished from radar screens en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur March 8 without warning, while MH17 was shot down in Ukraine in July.
The AirAsia logo on Twitter and its official Facebook page went from its usual cherry red to gray within minutes of its first statement saying that the plane had lost contact.
AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes, who flew to Surabaya, also took to Twitter. "This is my worst nightmare," he tweeted. "I as your group ceo will be there through these hard times. We will go through this terrible ordeal together."
Source

news popping up all over Facebook now about this, bodies and plane debris are found in the ocean 10km from where the plane lost radio contact.
Such a tragic incident. =(
RIP all 162 on board.

40 bodies have been found so far.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30630330

This family is so lucky. 
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-30/the-family-who-missed-flight-qz8501/5992282

AirAsia QZ8501: The family who missed the flight

An Indonesian family of 10 say they had a miraculous escape when they arrived too late to catch AirAsia flight QZ8501, which went missing shortly after take-off on the way to Singapore.

Christianawati, 36, said the group, including her family, her mother and her younger brother's family, were heading to Singapore to celebrate New Year.

The six adults and four children were originally booked on the 7:30am flight but AirAsia moved them to flight QZ8501 scheduled for two hours earlier.

"They emailed and called us on December 15 and 16 to inform us but we missed those calls," she said.

"So we arrived at the airport to check in for the 7:30am flight but were told our flights had been rescheduled to 5:30am and we were late. Of course we were angry," she said.

"While the new tickets were being reissued, we heard that the earlier plane had crashed so we cancelled our flights immediately," she said.

"I was shocked to hear about it and cried. Maybe it is all God's plan that my family and I were not on the flight. It was a blessing in disguise," she said.

"I hope that the plane is found and everyone is safe."

Christianawati said she would be switching airlines.

"We travel to Singapore twice a year and always by AirAsia. We consider it a safe airline ... but now our confidence in AirAsia is somewhat shaken and we shall just stick to Garuda Indonesia.

class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1419961127896_1369" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; line-height: 42px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Wreckage, bodies reveal jet's fate days after it disappearedPANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) -- Family members of those aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 collapsed in agony Tuesday as images of debris and a bloated body flashed across Indonesian television screens, proof that the plane crashed into the sea two days earlier with 162 people on board.
The low-cost carrier vanished Sunday halfway through a two-hour flight between Surabaya, Indonesia and Singapore after encountering storm clouds, sparking an international hunt with dozens of planes, ships and helicopters.
On the third day of searching, the first signs of the jet were found in shallow, aqua waters only about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the plane's last known coordinates: A life jacket, an emergency exit door. Parts of the jetliner's interior, including an oxygen tank, were brought to the nearest town, Pangkalan Bun. Another find included a bright blue plastic suitcase, completely unscratched.
"I know the plane has crashed, but I cannot believe my brother and his family are dead," said Ifan Joko, who lost seven relatives, three of them children, as they traveled to Singapore to ring in the New Year. "... We still pray they are alive."
First Adm. Sigit Setiayanta, Naval Aviation Center commander at Surabaya Air Force base, told reporters six corpses were spotted about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Central Kalimantan province.
Rescue workers were lowered on ropes from a hovering helicopter to retrieve bodies. Efforts were hindered by 2-meter-high (6-foot) waves and strong winds, National Search and Rescue Director SB Supriyadi said, but the first body was later picked up by a navy ship. Officials said as many as six others followed, but they disagreed about the exact number.
Supriyadi was on the aircraft and saw what appeared to be more wreckage under the water, which was clear and a relatively shallow 20 to 30 meters (65 to 100 feet).

Television coverage of the discovery sent a spasm of pain through the room at the Surabaya airport where relatives were waiting for news, especially as it showed a half-naked man floating in the water, a shirt partially covering his head.

Many screamed and wailed uncontrollably, breaking down into tears while they squeezed each other. One middle-aged man collapsed and had to be carried out on a stretcher.

Their horror at the news was captured by cameras on the other side of windows into the waiting room. To grant traumatized family members privacy, officials blacked out the glass later Tuesday evening.

Around 125 family members were planning to travel to Pangkalan Bun on Wednesday to start identifying their loved ones. Body bags and coffins have been prepared at hospitals there, while dozens of elite military divers will join the massive search. They are desperate to scour the water ahead of approaching rough weather.

The crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia, and Malaysia in particular. Malaysia-based AirAsia's loss comes on top of the still-unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew.

Nearly all the passengers and crew were Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.

Haidar Fauzie, 60, said his youngest child and only daughter, Khairunnisa Haidar, was a stewardess who had worked with AirAsia for two years.

On learning about the crash, he struggled to console his grieving wife. They last saw their child six weeks ago, when she returned home on holiday.

"From the start, we already knew the risks associated with being a stewardess," said Fauzie. "She is beautiful and smart. It has always been her dream to fly. We couldn't have stopped her."

Before flying to Surabaya to pay his respects to the families, AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted, "My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am."

Fernandes, the founder and the face of AirAsia, and a constant presence in Indonesia since the tragedy started unfolding, said he planned to travel to the recovery site on Wednesday.

"I have apologized profusely for what they are going through," he said of his contact with relatives. "I am the leader of this company, and I have to take responsibility. That is why I'm here. I'm not running away from my obligations."

It is not clear what brought the plane down.

The last communication indicated the pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds, but were denied due to heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the jet disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.

The plane's cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, have yet to be recovered. Scott Hamilton, managing director of aviation consultancy Leeham Co., said in a post on his website that autopsies may provide some of the earliest clues about what happened.

"If death was due to blunt force trauma, this could suggest passengers were alive upon impact with the water," he wrote. "If death came from other circumstances, this could suggest an explosive decompression and in-flight break up occurred."

Several countries rushed to Indonesia to help with search and recovery efforts.

The United States said it was sending the USS Sampson destroyer, joining at least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters in the search for the jet, said Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo.

A Chinese frigate also was on the way, while Singapore said it was sending two underwater beacon detectors to try to detect pings from the plane's all-important cockpit voice and flight data recorders. Malaysia, Australia and Thailand also are involved in the search.

Source

AirAsia families jolted by suddenly seeing live images of body, debris

class="headline" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1420047666435_1862" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.21em; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"As investigators identify first AirAsia #QZ8501 victims, harsh weather stalls further recovery efforts
Unforgiving weather conditions drove recovery efforts to a near-halt on New Year's eve, as waves of up to 3m in height and strong winds swept bodies and debris from the ill-fated AirAsia flight QZ8501 some 50km eastward from where pieces of the plane were first found just a day earlier.Ships were on Wednesday dispatched to stand by near the shores of Kalimantan, in case bodies eventually washed up there. Rescuers are racing against time to locate victims and debris from the flight, in a search area that will expand as it wears on.AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes said in a press conference on Wednesday evening that sea search operations are planned to proceed round the clock, even as weather forced aerial search to halt by 5pm Indonesia time. He also said Indonesian search authorities are moving all their mobilised search assets to two spots where they think the aircraft might be."The weather unfortunately is not looking good for the next two or three days. That is slowing us down," he said.

Officers of the National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) carry a body of one of the victims on board the ill-fated …

Indonesia's search and rescue agency BASARNAS nonetheless made some headway on day 4 of the effort, with the retrieval of a total of seven bodies they confirmed to be found in the waters of the search area. This, in turn, was on Wednesday restricted to a 28 by 56 nautical mile region.

Malaysia's chief of navy also said on his Twitter account that two ships under his purview, KD Lekir and KD Pahang, had collectively found four bodies and an evacuation slide from the plane on Wednesday, although it is not clear if these are among the seven that were confirmed by BASARNAS.

The agency successfully transported two victims — a woman and a teenage boy — by helicopter to land at Pangkalan Bun in central Kalimantan, where they were cleansed, placed into wooden coffins with floral wreaths laid on top, and flown in a Hercules C130 plane to Surabaya's Lanudal air base.

They were then transferred to Bayankara Police Hospital where forensic investigators commenced the identification process. Investigators determined from decomposition levels of the two bodies that they had died three days ago, in a preliminary report they shared with media at the hospital. Identification and cause of their deaths, they said, will take a longer time to work out.

In a separate update from Channel NewsAsia's on-ground correspondent in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesian navy ship Bung Tomo, which is believed to be carrying the other five out of the initial seven bodies found, was on Wednesday plying a seven-hour journey to Pangkalan Bun, and was expected to arrive by 9pm Indonesia time.

The ship will stay in deep water, while the bodies are transferred to a smaller ship to be brought nearer to shore. They will then be brought over land to a local hospital for cleansing, placed into coffins, and provided the weather clears on Thursday morning, will be flown to Surabaya for identification.

The Bung Tomo also reportedly retrieved a backpack, a child's shoes and food from the water in the course of its search effort on Wednesday.

Families are slowly being ferried from Juanda International Airport, where they were initially stationed for updates on the flight and their loved ones, to accommodation near the hospital, so they can better assist in identifying the bodies brought over. The family support centre will also be closed and moved to the hospital.

In a bid to quicken the process, local police have also collected DNA samples and identifying information from the immediate relatives of 93 passengers and crew. At Bayankara hospital, cold containers are ready to store up to 150 bodies, while 130 ambulances stand ready to transport bodies as they arrive at Lanudal.

Meanwhile, a team of crash site investigators from Britain, France, the US and Singapore is on its way to Pangkalan Bun on an Indonesian navy ship. Once they arrive, they will start examining the debris that has been retrieved and brought to land.

Speaking on Tuesday evening, Indonesian president Joko Widodo stressed that the key focus of the country's efforts is on the retrieval and evacuation of passengers and crew from the area, alongside debris from the plane. "We all pray that all families will be given the strength to face this tragedy," he said. 

He had on Monday night also directed Indonesia's transport ministry to review aviation procedures while seeking comprehensive weather reports from met agency officials for greater airline safety.

Singapore's two specialist teams with two underwater locator beacon detectors have been dispatched to the sea search area to assist in locating wreckage and the plane's black boxes beneath the surface. It now has a total of five ships deployed in the search — the RSS Kallang, a Bedok-class mine counter-measure vessel, set sail for Indonesian waters on Wednesday afternoon.

Malaysia also has several ships and aircraft deployed in the region. A destroyer from the US, the USS Sampson, has arrived at the search area, and a ship from China is also on its way, as are surveillance planes from China and South Korea, to back up the ongoing effort.

On board the missing AirAsia plane are a total of 162 people — 138 adults, 16 children and one infant, making up 155 passengers along with seven crew members (two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer). 

The passengers comprise one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one British, three South Koreans and 149 Indonesians, while the crew consists of six Indonesians and one French (the co-pilot). See the full manifest here, and read more about their stories here.

Singapore's Civil Aviation Authority said a total of 40 registered passenger next-of-kin have been flown to Surabaya to join hundreds of other relatives there. It said it will continue assisting and feeding updates to relatives who choose to stay in Singapore.

Moving messages have been pinned to a board at Terminal 2 of Singapore's Changi Airport, where people penned thoughts expressing their sadness and support over the disaster and loss of lives in post-it notes. The coloured squares were pasted on a board placed outside the relatives' holding area on Level 3.

QZ8501 lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control after 6:14am Indonesia time on Sunday, 42 minutes after departure and slightly more than an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore.

Reuters reports that the aircraft was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when it went missing without a distress signal.

The plane stayed on its submitted flight plan route before it asked for permission to deviate to avoid "bad weather" described by officials as dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning.

State navigation operator AirNav Indonesia revealed the details of the last messages sent between the plane and Indonesian air traffic control, saying that the pilot on board had not explained why he wanted to ascend to 38,000 feet. [Click here]

After giving immediate approval at 6:12am Indonesia time to veer left, which the plane then did, Indonesian air traffic control could not permit the jet to rise to that altitude as AirAsia flight QZ8502 was already cruising at that level. The Jakarta Post reports that Indonesian air traffic control then coordinated with its counterpart in Singapore to determine an approved 34,000 feet altitude. When they informed the pilot of the approved height to ascend to at 6:14am, however, they did not receive any response.

The pilot in command, Captain Iriyanto, had a substantial total of 20,000 flying hours and over 10 years' experience as a pilot trainer. The first officer, Remi Emmanual Plesel, a total of 2,275 flying hours, said AirAsia, adding that the jet underwent its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November this year.

Air Asia chief Tony Fernandes confirmed the plane had been given the all-clear by aviation technicians, was in "good condition" and "has never had any problems whatsoever".

Airbus said it would provide full assistance to authorities in charge of the investigation.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Inmarsat vice president of external affairs Chris McLaughlin as saying that AirAsia had started deploying satellite communications on some of its A320s that would provide position updates every two minutes, but the QZ8501 plane was not yet upgraded.

Source

Pilot’s Final Request Was Met by Two-Minute Radio Silence

It took about two minutes for air-traffic control to respond to AirAsia Bhd. (AIRA)’s ill-fated Flight 8501 when the pilot requested permission to elevate the plane, according to Indonesia’s air navigation operator.

In the final communication from the plane, one of the pilots asked to climb to as high as 38,000 feet, said Wisnu Darjono, director at AirNav Indonesia, citing a transcript of the conversation from the National Transport Safety Committee. Air traffic control authorized the plane to ascend only to 34,000 feet about two minutes later, after which contact was lost, Darjono said.

Accuweather.com data shows there were storms along the path of the plane, which Indonesia’s air transport director has said was flying at 32,000 feet.

Air-traffic control “couldn’t immediately give permission to fly at 38,000 feet because checks needed to be made to see if there were other planes nearby,” Darjono said in a phone interview. The “pilot didn’t reply.”

Radar data appeared to show that AirAsia made an “unbelievably” steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the plane’s limits, Reuters reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the probe’s initial findings.

As divers seek to find the plane’s black boxes, those final minutes may provide crucial clues as to what caused the Airbus Group NV (AIR) A320 plane to crash on Dec. 28 with 162 people on board into the ocean near Pangkalan Bun, about 600 miles southeast of Singapore. Rescuers started pulling bodies and debris from the water yesterday.

AirNav can’t publish the transcript, as only the National Transport Safety Committee has the authority to do so, Darjono said. He declined to provide further details from the transcript.

Source

class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420132257844_1198" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 35px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; line-height: 42px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"1st of 9 bodies from AirAsia crash identifiedSURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — A passenger aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 became the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family Thursday, one of many painful reunions to come, as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.

Hayati Lutfiah Hamid's identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Col. Budiyono of East Java's Disaster Victim Identification Unit.
Her body, in a dark casket topped with flowers, was handed over to family members during a brief ceremony at a police hospital in Surabaya, the Indonesian city where the plane took off. A relative cried as she placed both hands against the polished wood.
The coffin was then taken to a village and lowered into a muddy grave, following Muslim obligations requiring bodies to be buried quickly. An imam said a simple prayer as about 150 people gathered in the drizzling rain, and red flowers were sprinkled over the mound of wet dirt topped by a small white tombstone.
The Airbus A320 crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday with 162 people on board. Nine bodies have been recovered so far, including two on Thursday. Remains are being sent initially to Pangkalan Bun, the closest town on Borneo island, before being transported to Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, where Flight 8501 had taken off.
In the thick of Indonesia's rainy season, the weather has frequently prevented helicopters and divers from operating while strong sea currents have kept debris moving.
Singapore's navy sent an unmanned underwater vehicle capable of surveying the seabed to try to pinpoint the wreckage and the all-important "black boxes" — flight data and cockpit voice recorders. More than 50 ships, mostly from Indonesia, were scouring the area with high-tech detection equipment. Aircraft with metal detectors also were deployed.
We are "focusing on finding the body of the plane," Indonesia air force spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters. "There was something like a dark shadow once seen from a plane, but it cannot yet be proven as wreckage."
Sonar images have identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane.
"It's possible the bodies are in the fuselage," said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator in Pangkalan Bun. "So it's a race now against time and weather."
The longer the search takes, the more corpses will decompose and debris scatter.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas in Australia said there's a good chance the plane hit the water largely intact, and that many passengers remain inside it.
He added that bodies recovered so far would have come out with a breach in the fuselage. "But most passengers still should have had their seat belts on, particularly as the plane was going into weather. The captain would have still had the seat belt sign on."
It is unclear what brought the plane down about halfway into its two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. The jet's last communication indicated the pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the airliner disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.
The black boxes hold data that will help investigators determine the cause of the crash but have yet to be recovered. Items found so far include a life jacket, an emergency exit door, an inflatable slide, children's shoes, a blue suitcase and backpacks filled with food.
Relatives have given blood for DNA tests and submitted photos of their loved ones, along with identifying information such as tattoos or birthmarks that could help make the process easier.
The long wait, with its starts and stops, has been frustrating for Sugiarti. Her 40-year-old sister, Susiyah, was a nanny traveling to Singapore for a vacation with her employers and their 2-year-old daughter.
"I hope that they can find her body soon. I feel sorry for my sister because it has already been five days," she told reporters at a crisis center set up at a Surabaya police station. "I am trying very hard to be patient."
Nearly all the passengers were Indonesian, and many were Christians of Chinese descent. The country is predominantly Muslim, but sizeable pockets of people of other faiths are found throughout the sprawling archipelago.Source
class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 32px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 36px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"First Identified Victim From AirAsia Flight 8501 Crash Returned To Her Family

SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — A passenger aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 became the first victim of the crash to be returned to her family Thursday, one of many painful reunions to come, as search crews struggled against wind and heavy rain to find more than 150 people still missing.

Hayati Lutfiah Hamid's identity was confirmed by fingerprints and other means, said Col. Budiyono of East Java's Disaster Victim Identification Unit.

Her body, in a dark casket topped with flowers, was handed over to family members during a brief ceremony at a police hospital in Surabaya, the Indonesian city where the plane took off. A relative cried as she placed both hands against the polished wood.

The coffin was then taken to a village and lowered into a muddy grave, following Muslim obligations requiring bodies to be buried quickly. An imam said a simple prayer as about 150 people gathered in the drizzling rain, and red flowers were sprinkled over the mound of wet dirt topped by a small white tombstone.

The Airbus A320 crashed into the Java Sea on Sunday with 162 people on board. Nine bodies have been recovered so far, including two on Thursday. Remains are being sent initially to Pangkalan Bun, the closest town on Borneo island, before being transported to Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, where Flight 8501 had taken off.

In the thick of Indonesia's rainy season, the weather has frequently prevented helicopters and divers from operating while strong sea currents have kept debris moving.

Singapore's navy sent an unmanned underwater vehicle capable of surveying the seabed to try to pinpoint the wreckage and the all-important "black boxes" — flight data and cockpit voice recorders. More than 50 ships, mostly from Indonesia, were scouring the area with high-tech detection equipment. Aircraft with metal detectors also were deployed.

We are "focusing on finding the body of the plane," Indonesia air force spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters. "There was something like a dark shadow once seen from a plane, but it cannot yet be proven as wreckage."

Sonar images have identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane.

"It's possible the bodies are in the fuselage," said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator in Pangkalan Bun. "So it's a race now against time and weather."

The longer the search takes, the more corpses will decompose and debris scatter.

Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas in Australia said there's a good chance the plane hit the water largely intact, and that many passengers remain inside it.

He added that bodies recovered so far would have come out with a breach in the fuselage. "But most passengers still should have had their seat belts on, particularly as the plane was going into weather. The captain would have still had the seat belt sign on."

It is unclear what brought the plane down about halfway into its two-hour flight from Surabaya to Singapore. The jet's last communication indicated the pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the airliner disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.

The black boxes hold data that will help investigators determine the cause of the crash but have yet to be recovered. Items found so far include a life jacket, an emergency exit door, an inflatable slide, children's shoes, a blue suitcase and backpacks filled with food.

Relatives have given blood for DNA tests and submitted photos of their loved ones, along with identifying information such as tattoos or birthmarks that could help make the process easier.

The long wait, with its starts and stops, has been frustrating for Sugiarti. Her 40-year-old sister, Susiyah, was a nanny traveling to Singapore for a vacation with her employers and their 2-year-old daughter.

"I hope that they can find her body soon. I feel sorry for my sister because it has already been five days," she told reporters at a crisis center set up at a Surabaya police station. "I am trying very hard to be patient."

Nearly all the passengers were Indonesian, and many were Christians of Chinese descent. The country is predominantly Muslim, but sizeable pockets of people of other faiths are found throughout the sprawling archipelago.

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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1420221587659_875" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Some AirAsia victims found belted in seatsPANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — After nearly a week of searching for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, rescue teams battling monsoon rains had their most successful day yet on Friday, more than tripling the number of bodies pulled from the Java Sea, some still strapped to their seats.

Of the 30 corpses recovered so far, 21 were found on Friday, many of them by a U.S. Navy ship, according to officials.

The Airbus A320 carrying 162 passengers and crew went down Sunday, halfway into a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air-traffic control he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.

It remains unclear what caused the plane to plunge into the sea. The accident was AirAsia's first since it began operations in 2001, quickly becoming one of the region's most popular low-cost carriers.

In addition to looking for victims, Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said ships from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the U.S. are scouring the ocean floor as they try to pinpoint wreckage and the all-important black boxes.

The data recorder contains crucial information like engine temperature and vertical and horizontal speed; the voice recorder saves conversations between pilots and other sounds coming from inside the cockpit.

Toos Saniotoso, an Indonesian air safety investigator, said investigators "are looking at every aspect" as they try to determine why the plane crashed. "From the operational side, the human factor, the technical side, the ATC (air-traffic control) — everything is valuable to us."

Bad weather, which has hindered the search for the past several days, remained a worry. A drizzle and light clouds covered the area Friday morning, but rain, strong winds and high waves up to 4 meters (13 feet) were forecast until Sunday. Strong sea currents have also kept debris moving.

That has severely slowed recovery efforts, as well, as bodies drift farther and farther away.

Col. Yayan Sofiyan, commander of the warship Bung Tomo, told MetroTV his vessel managed to pull seven bodies from the choppy waters on Friday, five still fastened in their seats.

Soelistyo, who was only able to confirm two victims in their seats, said a total of 30 bodies have been recovered. More than a third have been pulled out by a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Sampson.

Generally, aviation experts say the more passengers, luggage and parts of the aircraft that remain intact indicate the plane hit the water in one piece. That would signal problems like a mechanical error or a stall instead of a mid-air break-up due to an explosion or sudden depressurization.

Soelistyo pledged to recover the bodies of "our brothers and sisters ... whatever conditions we face."

Four crash victims have been identified and returned to their families, including a flight attendant and an 11-year-old boy.

After prayers on Friday, the holiest day of the week for Muslims, more than 200 people gathered at a mosque in Surabaya to remember the victims.

"We pray that the passengers in this AirAsia tragedy will be received by Allah," the imam said, "and that all their sins will be forgiven by Allah."

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The AirAsia Plane Crashed Due To Ice Chunks In The Engine, Weather Experts Believe



Meteorological experts have said that icing is a likely cause behind the downing of AirAsia QZ8501, based on an analysis of available weather data from the day the plane disappeared.
In the Indonesian government’s first report about what might have caused QZ8501 to crash, the authors say: “The most probable weather phenomenon was icing that can cause engine damage.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, the 14-page report, which examines the weather conditions of the day the plane went missing, found that turbulence was probably far less of an impact on the plane than icing.
This weather-related issue occurs when tiny ice crystals are sucked inside an engine and can accumulate into chunks that damage turbine blades or the ignition system.
Despite the new data the authors have said that the findings aren’t conclusive, saying that icing is just one of the possibilities available for what happened to the plane.
It “is not a final decision about the cause of the incident,” the report said.
This theory is the latest in a string of assumptions made about the fate of the flight, along with the theory of a fatal mid-air stall which triggering the plane to crash.
There are also new reports that Indonesian recovery crews have found parts of the wreckage just 29 metres underwater.
The search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo told reporters yesterday that a 23-metre-long object has been located and they strongly suspect it to be the tail of the plane.
“With the discovery of an oil spill and two big parts of the aircraft, I can assure you these are the parts of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for,” he said.
So far 30 bodies have been found — all floating in the ocean, some still strapped into their seats — 132 passengers and crew remain missing.
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class="headline" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1421094452160_796" style="font-size: 35px; font-weight: 300; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; line-height: 42px; padding-top: 15px; padding-bottom: 20px; padding-right: 40px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Divers find black boxes in AirAsia crash, retrieve 1 of themPANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — Divers retrieved one black box Monday and located the other from the AirAsia plane that crashed more than two weeks ago, key developments that should help investigators unravel what caused the aircraft to plummet into the Java Sea.

The flight data recorder was pulled from beneath a piece of the aircraft's wing and brought to the sea's surface, and the cockpit voice recorder was found hours later, said Suryadi Bambang Supriyadi, operation coordinator for Indonesia's national search and rescue agency.

He said the voice recorder was about 20 meters (66 feet) from the data recorder but remained lodged beneath heavy wreckage, and divers were struggling to free it at a depth of 32 meters (105 feet).

Searchers began zeroing in on the location a day earlier after three Indonesian ships picked up intense pings from the area, but they were unable to see the devices due to strong currents and poor visibility.

The two instruments, which emit signals from their beacons, are vital to understanding what brought Flight 8501 down on Dec. 28, killing all 162 people on board. They should provide essential information about the plane and all of the conversations between the captain and co-pilot for the duration of the flight.

"There's like 200-plus parameters they record," said aviation safety expert John Goglia, a former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board member. "It's going to provide us an ocean of material."

The flight data recorder will be taken to Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, for evaluation, and the other black box will be sent as soon as it is retrieved. It could take up to two weeks to download and analyze their information, said Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at the National Committee for Safety Transportation.

The slow-moving hunt, which has often gone days with little progress, was boosted over the weekend when the Airbus A320's tail was lifted from the seabed. It was the first major wreckage excavated from the crash site, but the black boxes were not found inside as hoped.

Search efforts have been consistently hampered by big waves and powerful currents created by the region's rainy season. Silt and sand, along with river runoff, have created blinding conditions for divers.

Henry Bambang Soelistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency, said Sunday that divers had located a wing and debris from an engine. Officials have been working urgently to locate the main section of the plane's cabin, where many of the victims' corpses are believed to be entombed.

So far, only 48 bodies have been recovered. Decomposition is making identification more difficult for desperate families waiting to bury their loved ones. Nearly all of the passengers were Indonesian.

"I still believe many victims remain trapped there, and we must find them," said Gen. Moeldoko, Indonesia's military chief, who uses one name.

He said more than 80 divers are involved in the recovery effort and have been ordered to make finding the fuselage their top priority.

The last contact the pilots had with air traffic control, less than halfway into their two-hour journey from Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, to Singapore, indicated they were entering stormy weather. They asked to climb from 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) to avoid threatening clouds, but were denied permission because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the plane dropped off the radar. No distress signal was sent.

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