AirAsia QZ8501: Seven crew, 155 passengers missing on QPR owner’s airline
(Bloomberg) — A multination search is under way to find an AirAsia Bhd. plane that's been missing for more than six hours with 155 passengers and seven crew on board.
The Airbus Group NV single-aisle jet was flying to Singapore from Indonesia, and the pilot requested to fly at a higher altitude because of clouds, Indonesia Air Transport Director Djoko Murja Mojo said in Jakarta today. The journey usually takes about two hours. Indonesia is leading the search for the plane while Singapore sent assistance.
QZ8501 lost contact with airport controllers at 7:24 a.m. Indonesian time today, the Malaysia-based carrier said in a statement. The flight started in Surabaya, Indonesia, at 5:35 a.m. local time and was due to arrive in Singapore at 8.30 a.m. There's a one hour time difference between the two countries. AirAsia said there was no information on the fate of the passengers and crew of the Airbus A320-200.
The last signal from the plane was between Pontianak and Tanjung Pandan. Indonesian authorities will focus their search around the Belitung island and expand that gradually, Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan said.
"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, the region's biggest budget carrier, said in the statement.
Storms
The aircraft was flying at 32,000 feet before it requested to go higher, Murja Mojo said.
There were storms along AirAsia's flight path, Accuweather.com said on its website, citing their own meteorologist Dave Samuhel. Storms are very active this time of the year, Samuhel was quoted as saying, adding that December and January are the wettest period of the year in Indonesia.
The plane had two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer on board, Sepang, Malaysia-based AirAsia said. While the company is based in Malaysia, the airline operates with subsidiaries and affiliates in different countries. The missing plane belonged to the Indonesian operations of the budget airline.
The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275, the airline said in the statement.
Search Operations
Of the 155 passengers, 138 were adults, 16 children and one an infant. The plane was carrying one Singaporean, a Malaysian, a person from France, three from South Korea and 156 Indonesians, according to the AirAsia press release.
Airbus, the Toulouse, France-based planemaker, said it's aware of the reports about Flight 8501 and the company is in contact with the airline.
The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance last month, the carrier said. AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes said he was flying to Surabaya, Indonesia with the airline's management.
Search-and-rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of Indonesia's Civil Aviation Authority, AirAsia said in the statement. "AirAsia Indonesia is cooperating fully and assisting the investigation in every possible way," it said.
At Terminal Two of Singapore's Changi Airport, authorities had set up a holding room for friends and relatives of passengers. A woman, who said her name is Tri, said her relatives were on board QZ8501. Officials briefed those in the holding room, she said, without elaborating.
Airbus A320
Today's incident comes in one of the worst years in aviation for Asia, and Malaysia in particular. The Southeast Asian nation is still reeling from the crashes of two planes operated by state-run carrier Malaysian Airline System Bhd.
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 two accidents killed a combined 537 people and caused ticket bookings to plunge. No debris of MH370 has been found in what has become the world's longest search for a missing passenger jet.
AirAsia had a total of 171 A320s in operations at the end of September, according to its quarterly operating statistics statement on its website. The Indonesia unit operated 30 planes, the statement said. The airline has units across several Asian nations, including India and Thailand.
The single-aisle A320 is the most popular plane that Airbus makes in terms of sales numbers. The plane typically seats between 150 to 180 passengers, usually in six abreast configuration.
More than 3,600 A320s are in operation worldwide as of November, according to Airbus's website. – BLOOMBERG
Rescuers scoured the sea for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people which went missing in bad weather Sunday en route from Indonesia to Singapore, the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 around an hour after it left Juanda international airport at Surabaya in east Java, at 5:20am.
It was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 8:30am (0030 GMT).
Shortly before disappearing, the plane asked permission from Jakarta air traffic control to track away from its flight plan and climb above bad weather in an area noted for severe thunderstorms.
The pilots requested "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 (ATC)", AirAsia said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The airline said 156 of those on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and France.
There were 138 adult passengers, 16 children and an infant, in addition to five cabin crew and the pilot and co-pilot, who is believed to be French.
The Indonesian air force said two of its planes had been dispatched to scour an area of the Java Sea, southwest of Pangkalan Bun in Kalimantan province — around halfway along the flight's expected route.
"The weather is cloudy and the area is surrounded by sea. We are still on our way so we won't make an assumption on what happened to the plane," said air force spokesman Hadi Cahyanto.
The aircraft was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost airline market.
– Anxiety builds –
With hard details few and far between, panicked relatives gathered at Singapore's Changi airport.
In Surabaya hundreds of Indonesians descended on the terminal, hoping for news of the missing jet.
A 45-year-old woman told AFP that she had six family members on the plane.
"They were going to Singapore for a holiday," she said.
"They have always flown with AirAsia and there was no problem. I am shocked to hear the news, and I am very worried that the plane might have crashed."
Indonesia, a vast archipelago with poor land transport infrastructure, has seen an explosive growth of low-cost air travel over recent years.
But the air industry has been blighted by poor safety standards in an area that also experiences extreme weather.
AirAsia said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on November 16. The company has never suffered a fatal accident.
The company swiftly replaced its distinctive bright red logo to a grey background on its social media pages.
An official from Indonesia's transport ministry said the pilot asked to ascend 6,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid heavy clouds.
"The plane is in good condition but the weather is not so good," Djoko Murjatmodjo told a press conference at Jakarta's airport, addressing reports of severe storms in the area where the jet went missing.
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," according to Indonesian-based aviation analyst Dudi Sudibyo.
Singapore, Malaysia and Australia quickly offered to help the hunt for the plane. The White House said US President Barack Obama had been briefed on the disappearance and it was monitoring the situation.
The plane's disappearance comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, vanished in March after inexplicably diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing course. No trace of the aircraft has been found.
Another Malaysia Airlines plane went down in July in rebellion-torn eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard. It was believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile.
AirAsia's flamboyant boss Tony Fernandes, a former record industry executive who acquired the then-failing airline in 2001, tweeted: "Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We must stay strong."
His airline, Asia's budget leader, has seen spectacular success and aggressive growth under his low-cost, low-overhead model.
While its rival Malaysia Airlines faces potential collapse after the two disasters this year, AirAsia confirmed this month its order of 55 A330-900neo passenger planes at a list price of $15 billion.
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