AirAsia’s missing flight: The Whole Story

It has been not even a year ever since the MH -370 incident struck the entire South Asia and the recent newsof Air Asia flight 8501went missing from past 24 hours left everyone in a deep sorrow. But, according tothe press conference report by the airline management Airbus A320 was bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, when it lost contact with air-traffic control at about 7.24 AM on Sunday.Australian Air Force has stretched its helping hand to the Singapore and Malaysiain finding the missing aircraft. First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base, has already sent 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships as a part of rescue operation and the search resumed after dawn Monday.

Steve Marks, Miami aviation lawyer said that it’s inexcusable on the part of the airlines for not using satellites to track every aircraft throughout every flight. Commemorating two incidents that occurred in the same region, in the same year Marks claimed that the technology existed for years but it was not implemented.

Tyler Roys, a meteorologist of Accuweather said that the area at which the jet disappeared showed the occurrence of many thunderstorms at the time when the flight was in that area.The jet lost its contact about 42 minutes after takeoff from Surabaya airport.When the jet went missing, there were 155 passengers on board including 16 children and one infant.Amongst the passengers were 149 Indonesians and three South Koreans, one Malaysian, a Briton and his infant daughter.

Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director of transportation said that the jet is believed to have gone missing somewhere over the Java Sea and specifically between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung Island and Pontianak, on Indonesia’s part of Borneo islands. On the other hand, kith and kin of the missing passengers and the cabin crew were drowned in sorrows. The airport was filled with the outcry from the passengers who demanded the address of the missing of flight.

AirAsia is based in Sepang, Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur. AirAsia, has offered its services for years, and it positioned itself as the cheap and affordable aircraft to the passengers. AirAsia Malaysia owns 49% stake of the Indonesian subsidiary. No such incident occurred in AirAsia’s history till date.Captain Iriyanto,who was in the flight,had a total of 20,000 flying hours including 6,100 hours in the Airbus.Owing to the loss of 8501, the officials of the AirAsia Company, showed their concern for the missed passengers by changing the color of airline’s social networking account’s logo both on Facebook and Twitter account logos from red to gray as soon as the plane disappeared.

The officials now are looking more seriously into the issue as there are outcries from all quarters.The authorities in-charge of the investigation, are trying to locate the black boxes, which will describe precisely what the pilots were saying and which helps to study the behavior of the jet.However, officials are trying to identify the floating debris in the sea as early as possible.

With a huge challenge ahead, will the officials over come the obstacle sand find the jet is the major concern now.

-Sri Varshini Kolavennu.

First published in Bangalorean.