2014 has been marked by a series of aviation disasters and for the third time this year, a Malaysian carrier was hit by a major incident with an AirAsia airplane carrying 162 people on board reported missing a few days before New Year.
Low-cost airline company AirAsia revealed that flight QZ8501, which was travelling from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday, Dec. 28 lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control after the plane's pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather.
"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," the company said in a statement.
The plane, a six-year old Airbus A320-200 that has had about 23,000 flight hours, left Surabaya's Juanda international airport at 5:35 am (Indonesian time) and was supposed to arrive in Singapore at 7:30 a.m. AirAsia said that the plane lost contact with air traffic control at 6:17 am.
Indonesian Transport Ministry air transportation director Djoko Murjatmodjo said that the plane did not send any distress signal. In a news conference, he said that the plane had been flying at 32,000 feet and asked air traffic control to fly at 38,000 feet in order to avoid clouds. Dudi Sudibyo , an aviation analyst said that climbing to avoid rain clouds is actually a standard procedure employed by aircrafts.
AirAsia said that the plane had four flight attendants, two pilots and one engineer aboard the missing plane and noted that the captain in command and the first officer were both experienced with 6,100 flying hours and 2,275 flying hours, respectively. The plane also had its last maintenance last month. Murjatmodjo said that although the plane is in good condition, the weather is not.
The missing aircraft was carrying 155 passengers and seven crews, six of whom were from Indonesia and one from France. 149 of the passengers were from Indonesia. There were one passenger from Malaysia, one from Singapore, one from the United Kingdom and three from South Korea. One hundred thirty eight of the passengers were adult. There were 16 children and one infant.
A search and rescue operation is already underway. The plane is between Belitung island and Kalimantan when it went missing. AirAsia said it has especially designated the contact number +622129850801 for the loved ones of those who may have been aboard the missing airplane.
