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Air Asia Flight Goes Missing

By Jeralyn, Section Foreign Affairs
Posted on Sun Dec 28, 2014 at 07:55:00 AM EST
Tags: AirAsia (all tags)
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An AirAsia Flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore has gone missing.

"The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to enroute weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian air traffic control," the airline said in a statement.

No distress signal was sent. It was somewhere between the port of Tanjung Pandan in Indonesia and West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when contact was lost.

Here is the airline's full statement.

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    Air Asia Flight Goes Missing | 9 comments (9 topical)

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    Sadly (5.00 / 3) (#2)
    by smott on Sun Dec 28, 2014 at 11:56:14 AM EST
    But the requested climb to near max envelope alt plus extremely slow ground speed is ominously similar to AF447. RIP to the souls on board.

    When we flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg ... (none / 0) (#3)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Sun Dec 28, 2014 at 09:41:13 PM EST
    in 2010, we had to fly through some pretty gnarly weather over the central Atlantic Ocean. And I've seen all sorts of horrible weather on flights between here and the North American continent. One time, it took us 7h 10m to fly from LAX to HNL, and even the cabin crew was ordered to stay seated through most of it.

    It's on sad occasions such as this that I'm always reminded how blasé we really are about air travel, which if you think about it has actually been a popular and affordable mode of mass transit in our own country for less than 60 years. My thoughts and prayers are with relatives of the likely crash victims.

    Aloha.

     

    Parent

    It is now being reported (none / 0) (#4)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Dec 29, 2014 at 09:08:38 AM EST
    searchers have found debris and an oil slick in an area close to the location of the flights last known position.

    It is also being reported that the pilot asked for clearance to 38000 feet but that was denied because of other traffic in the area.

    This lowers the possibility of the speculation that the aircraft somehow was flipped on its back/stalled/whatever because it was at the top of its maximum altitude, etc.

    Why the pilot didn't deviate around the weather is also a question. It may be poor judgement or it may be that by the time he realized he should he was completely closed in a "box canyon" with no way out.

    Parent

    I'm surprised (none / 0) (#6)
    by Uncle Chip on Mon Dec 29, 2014 at 10:36:35 AM EST
    that it has taken them this long to find it. Those black boxes should have started to ping as soon as they got wet.

    I also thought after the MH370 debacle that INMARSAT tracking technology was going to be immediately installed on every airliner at no charge to prevent another lost plane.

    Parent

    I'm thinking the aircraft was still in radar (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Dec 29, 2014 at 01:21:04 PM EST
    contact since the pilot had requested to climb to 38,000 feet and had been denied because of other traffic in the area.

    So they have a good idea as to where it went down.

    Still, "O God thy ocean is so great and my boat is so small...."

    seems to apply here, even if it is a plane involved.

    Parent

    One expert on safety avionics (none / 0) (#7)
    by Mordiggian 88 on Mon Dec 29, 2014 at 11:19:56 AM EST
    I heard on KCBS in San Francisco last night said that there has been resistance to doing so because of the magnitude of task.

    It would entail modifications on thousands of airliners, and that it still hasn't been settled as to exactly where the money to do so would come from. It needs to be done, the impact on the airline industry of another loss like this could be severe for at least the rest of this decade.

    Parent

    I think it's still too early to be (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Mordiggian 88 on Mon Dec 29, 2014 at 09:58:27 AM EST
    Making speculations as to what went wrong, as there could be many explainations for the accident, not all of them involving pilot error.

    And, as with DFH, my thoughts are with the families and friends of all those people who were aboard the flight.

    QZ8501 (none / 0) (#1)
    by Uncle Chip on Sun Dec 28, 2014 at 07:55:37 AM EST
    MH370, MH17, and now this --

    2014 will have to be known as the year of the plane in Malaysia -- a year that can't end soon enough for them.

    Never too early (none / 0) (#8)
    by KeysDan on Mon Dec 29, 2014 at 12:19:01 PM EST
    to be making speculations as to what went wrong.  Anna Koolman of Fox News speculated with her guest, a former FAA spokesperson, if the "real reason" the plane disappeared was the difference in pilot training specifically, their use of the metric system.   "its kilometers or miles, everything is different ...."    Perhaps, Anna has a point if she is thinking that flying at an altitude of 9,000 meters rather than 30, 000 feet seems  too low to her.  

    Agreed, that the 24h coverage of various oil spots or plastic bottles should give way to concern for the passengers and their loved ones.

    Air Asia Flight Goes Missing | 9 comments (9 topical)

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