The air search for an AirAsia Indonesia airliner which went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board has been suspended for the night. Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control at around 06:20 local time (23:20 GMT) over the Java Sea. AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said that he was "very devastated" by what had happened and that the airline's priority was to look after the families of the passengers and crew.
AirAsia Malaysia chief Tony Fernandes is at the airport trying to comfort the families, but the airline can offer little besides food, a hotel for the night and assurances that all is being done to find the plane.
They have had no serious incidents on the Air Asia fleet since starting operations in 2002 and have grown massively over that period - which is a tremendous achievement. I am one of the insurers on their aviation policy and it has been one of the safest airlines in the world with huge investment in modern equipment, training and maintenance. The issue with the EU was more of a generic one around Indonesian based carriers in general rather than specific to Indonesian Air Asia
I'll bow to your and Sussex's expertise. The BBC are quoting Indonesia Air Asia (of which Air Asia is a 49% owner) was specifically banned from EU flights from 2007-10 for safety reasons. Its some time ago, so presumably irrelevant now anyway.
So has any update on whats happene been posted, Ive heard nothing over here. HAve they found out what happened yet ?
Not the first time the Beeb engaged in a bit of fuzzy wuzzy propaganda. They were at it last night with Clarkson and his crew in the Argentine. I like the Beeb (and Jezza!) but like every state broadcaster they get caught up in their own bullsh*t now and again
Yeah i watched the Patagonia special last night and at the end i wondered how far back they had set relations. Not a wise move and surely if they had picked up on it, they could hve changed the plates or even the car FFS !
They're still saying bad weather caused it probably and that the plane is sunk in the ocean, only some debris found so far in the search zone.
Terrible news this morning confirming debris found to be from the aircraft. My deepest condolences to Air Asia Indonesia and all involved. Very sad news.
I doubt there'll be a minutes silence, why would the FA sanction it, Just for Tony, or the fact a plane crashed? We'd be having a minutes silence every week. The disturbing news seems that the plane might actually have been able to ditch and that some may have survived. One object found seems to have been one of the door flotation devices that inflates if the plane lands on water. Also reports are coming in that the Indonesian Navy have found the plane in just 20-30 meters of water, which could must be luck, or the fact the pilots brought the plane close to shore to ditch. But they say they can see the shape of a plane. Judging by the numbers of bodies they've found so far, it would seem they did survive and made it on to the inflatables only to drown afterwards. If the plane had actually crashed they wouldn't be finding so many bodies intact. This just shows that the airline industry needs to start incorporating far more advanced locators so that if it does ditch there is no need to search, just head straight to the site. Why they haven't done that already is beyond me when the cost of such locators is so cheap in comparison to the 50-200 million spent on each plane.
If the plane has been found, and maybe that will give some closure for the poor families involved...and may yield information on what went wrong. Deepest sympathies to the families at this time of year. It puts our football "worries" into perspective RIP
