DHAKA: A search operation is underway for an AirAsia Indonesia flight with 162 people on board that lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control en route to Singapore on Sunday, after the pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather and no distress signal was sent.
Flight QZ8501, which was travelling from Surabaya to Singapore on Sunday morning, has 155 passengers and seven crew members on board. The passengers include 149 Indonesians, one Singaporean, one British, one Malaysian and three Koreans.
The plane left Juanda international airport in Surabaya in east Java at 5.35am (Indonesia time) and was expected to arrive in Singapore at 8.30am (Singapore time). Air Asia said the plane lost contact with air traffic control at 6.24am (Indonesia time). Local officials, however, said the plane lost contact at 6.17am (Indonesia time). Indonesia is one hour behind Singapore.
“The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to en route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian air traffic control,” AirAsia said in a statement.
No distress signal had been sent, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, air transportation director at the Indonesian Transport Ministry.
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, Murjatmodjo told a news conference. The aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds, he said.
Indonesian-based aviation analyst Dudi Sudibyo said climbing to dodge large rain clouds is a standard procedure for aircraft in these conditions. “There is nothing wrong to do that. What happens after that is a question mark,” he told.
Tanjung Pandan is the main town on Belitung island, roughly half-way between Surabaya and Singapore.
“The plane is in good condition but the weather is not so good,” Murjatmodjo told the press conference at Jakarta’s airport, addressing reports of severe storms in the area where the jet went missing.
The airline said the captain and first officer were both experienced. The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours, said the airline. The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on Nov 16.
The Indonesian air force said two of its planes had been dispatched to scour an area of the Java Sea, south-west of Pangkalan Bun in Kalimantan province.
Source: straitstimes.com
BDST: 1043 HRS, DEC 28, 2014/ updated 1538hrs
