AirAsia FLT QZ 8501 Gone Missing Indonesia To Singapore [update]
The search is on for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that lost contact with air traffic control in Indonesia on Sunday.
Before
communication was lost, AirAsia Flight 8501 asked to deviate from its
planned flight route -- from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to
Singapore -- because of weather conditions, AirAsia said in a statement.
Flight
8501 went missing at 7:24 a.m. Sunday (7:24 p.m. Saturday ET) as it
flew over the Java Sea. From flight tracking websites, it looks as
though almost the entire flight path is over the sea.
"At this time,
search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of
the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority," AirAsia said.
Of the people
on board the Airbus A320-200, 156 are Indonesian, three are South
Korean, one is French, one is Malaysian and one is Singaporean, the
airline said. It had earlier said 157 of those on the plane are
Indonesian.
Sixteen children and one infant were among the passengers, the carrier said.
"Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. we must stay strong," AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said on Twitter.
Flight
8501 "was requesting deviation due to en route weather before
communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said.
Bad weather was in evidence in the region at the time, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.
Missing AirAsia plane was on common route AirAsia pilot requested to change route
"We
still had lines of very heavy thunderstorms" when the plane was flying,
Van Dam said. "But keep in mind, turbulence doesn't necessarily bring
down airplanes."
But CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo questioned whether weather would have been a factor in what happened to the plane.
"Ordinarily,
the pilots would get the updated weather from air traffic control and,
of course, their onboard radar," said Schiavo, a former inspector
general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "So whether there was
(bad) weather in the area would not be a mystery."
AirAsia is a
Malaysia-based airline that is popular in the region as a budget
carrier. It has about 100 destinations, with subsidiaries in several
Asian countries.
The airline has a "very good" reputation for safety, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said.
The
loss of contact with the AirAsia plane comes nearly 10 months after the
disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which dropped off radar
over Southeast Asia on March 8.
Searchers are yet to find any debris from Flight 370, which officials believe crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
U.S.
President Barack Obama has been briefed about the missing AirAsia
plane, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, adding that U.S.
officials will continue to monitor the situation.
#Pray for AirAsia QZ8501
Before
communication was lost, AirAsia Flight 8501 asked to deviate from its
planned flight route -- from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to
Singapore -- because of weather conditions, AirAsia said in a statement.
Flight
8501 went missing at 7:24 a.m. Sunday (7:24 p.m. Saturday ET) as it
flew over the Java Sea. From flight tracking websites, it looks as
though almost the entire flight path is over the sea.
"At this time,
search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of
the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority," AirAsia said.
Of the people
on board the Airbus A320-200, 156 are Indonesian, three are South
Korean, one is French, one is Malaysian and one is Singaporean, the
airline said. It had earlier said 157 of those on the plane are
Indonesian.
Sixteen children and one infant were among the passengers, the carrier said.
"Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. we must stay strong," AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said on Twitter.
Flight
8501 "was requesting deviation due to en route weather before
communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said.
Bad weather was in evidence in the region at the time, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.
Missing AirAsia plane was on common route AirAsia pilot requested to change route
"We
still had lines of very heavy thunderstorms" when the plane was flying,
Van Dam said. "But keep in mind, turbulence doesn't necessarily bring
down airplanes."
But CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo questioned whether weather would have been a factor in what happened to the plane.
"Ordinarily,
the pilots would get the updated weather from air traffic control and,
of course, their onboard radar," said Schiavo, a former inspector
general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "So whether there was
(bad) weather in the area would not be a mystery."
AirAsia is a
Malaysia-based airline that is popular in the region as a budget
carrier. It has about 100 destinations, with subsidiaries in several
Asian countries.
The airline has a "very good" reputation for safety, CNN aviation correspondent Richard Quest said.
The
loss of contact with the AirAsia plane comes nearly 10 months after the
disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which dropped off radar
over Southeast Asia on March 8.
Searchers are yet to find any debris from Flight 370, which officials believe crashed in the southern Indian Ocean.
U.S.
President Barack Obama has been briefed about the missing AirAsia
plane, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, adding that U.S.
officials will continue to monitor the situation.
#Pray for AirAsia QZ8501
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