QZ8501 AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore flight carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members on board went missing on Sunday.
The Airbus 320-200 took off from Surabaya in Java, Indonesia, at 5.20am local time (6.20am Malaysian time) and was due to arrive in Singapore two hours later, but it lost contact with air traffic control.
Search and rescue (SAR) efforts have since been
launched by the Indonesian authorities but have so far failed to produce results.
Reports that the plane may have crashed near Belituing Island, off the coast of Sumatra, have not been confirmed.
_______________________________________________________ LIVE REPORTS
New developments
2.43pm: The red and white debris sighted off Kalimantan in the Java sea is “likely” from from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Reutersquotes an Indonesian official as saying.
“We are checking if it’s debris from the aircraft. It’s probably from the body of the aircraft,” says Djoko Murjatmodjo, who is Indonesian Transport Ministry acting director-general of air transportation.
He adds that based on the size and colour of the debris, it is likely to be part of the missing jet.
Object 'like that of human body' sighted
2.37pm: The SAR team reports that an object "indicated to be like that of a human body" has been sighted in the Karimata straits near West Kalimantan.
The sighting was made from a Hercules A319 aircraft, reportsdetik.com.
2pm: One of the SAR operations commanders, Dwi Putranto, says that there are 10 big objects and other smaller items in the sighted debris.
“It is said that there is one long yellow object, which looks like a tank. There is one obvious, white shiny object. If it has been in the waters for long, the colours would have faded, but this (object) was very obvious,” says Dwi, according to detik.com.
Debris sighted in search area
1.30pm: Debris of about two metres wide with some in red and yellow, red and black colours have been sighted in the waters off Belinyu, Bangka, near the search site and helicopters are now heading towards the location, detik.com and kompas.com report.
Bangka Belitung governor Rustam Effendi confirms the sighting.
Rustam also says that a fisherman had reported it but the high waves were making it difficult to get to the place, reportsdetik.com.
kompas.com states that a SAR operations team has received recorded pictures of the debris sighted.
12.49pm: The search and rescue operation receives reports of a fire at an island located in the search zone for AirAsia Flight QZ8501.
According to CNN and CBS, two aircraft have been dispatched to investigate if the fire is linked to the missing aircraft.
This comes after the search effort is expanded to cover coastal land this morning, after two days of futile search.
Missing plane yet to be fitted with tracking tech
11.30am: AirAsia was upgrading its fleet of short-haul jets to make them easier to track, but hadn't modified the aircraft that disappeared on Sunday, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The report further states that the budget airline is an early adopter of a dedicated tracking service, ahead of an industry push to comprehensively follow planes in flight.
US sends its best search vessel to help
9.54am: The USS Sampson, a US destroyer, is expected to arrive later today to help search for the missing AirAsia aircraft.
In a statement issued from Yokosuka, Japan, the US military said that the US Pacific Command had ordered the Sampson to the "general search area" in response to a request from the government of Indonesia.
"The US Navy is working closely with the government of Indonesia to identify additional surface or airborne capabilities that can best assist their search efforts," the US military said.
The Indonesian government had on Monday sent a diplomatic note to the US Embassy in Jakarta with the request for help, the US State Department said.
The Sampson is part of the US Seventh Fleet, under the US Pacific Command, and is part of an independent deployment to the Western Pacific.
Search area expanded
9.15am: The search and rescue efforts (SAR) have now been detailed into 13 zones. Indonesian authorities say that all areas are being combed, including on land, detik.com reports.
9am: RMN chief Abdul Aziz says the navy's search vessel KD Lekirhas entered the search site zone.
7.45am: Royal Malaysian Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar tweets that the search area has been expanded and revised.
Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/284865
The Airbus 320-200 took off from Surabaya in Java, Indonesia, at 5.20am local time (6.20am Malaysian time) and was due to arrive in Singapore two hours later, but it lost contact with air traffic control.
Search and rescue (SAR) efforts have since been
launched by the Indonesian authorities but have so far failed to produce results.
Reports that the plane may have crashed near Belituing Island, off the coast of Sumatra, have not been confirmed.
_______________________________________________________ LIVE REPORTS
New developments
- Debris sighted in search area
- Missing plane yet to be fitted with tracking tech
- US Navy sending ship to help
- Search area has been expanded and revised
2.43pm: The red and white debris sighted off Kalimantan in the Java sea is “likely” from from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Reutersquotes an Indonesian official as saying.
“We are checking if it’s debris from the aircraft. It’s probably from the body of the aircraft,” says Djoko Murjatmodjo, who is Indonesian Transport Ministry acting director-general of air transportation.
He adds that based on the size and colour of the debris, it is likely to be part of the missing jet.
Object 'like that of human body' sighted
2.37pm: The SAR team reports that an object "indicated to be like that of a human body" has been sighted in the Karimata straits near West Kalimantan.
The sighting was made from a Hercules A319 aircraft, reportsdetik.com.2pm: One of the SAR operations commanders, Dwi Putranto, says that there are 10 big objects and other smaller items in the sighted debris.
“It is said that there is one long yellow object, which looks like a tank. There is one obvious, white shiny object. If it has been in the waters for long, the colours would have faded, but this (object) was very obvious,” says Dwi, according to detik.com.
Debris sighted in search area
1.30pm: Debris of about two metres wide with some in red and yellow, red and black colours have been sighted in the waters off Belinyu, Bangka, near the search site and helicopters are now heading towards the location, detik.com and kompas.com report.Bangka Belitung governor Rustam Effendi confirms the sighting.
Rustam also says that a fisherman had reported it but the high waves were making it difficult to get to the place, reportsdetik.com.
kompas.com states that a SAR operations team has received recorded pictures of the debris sighted.
12.49pm: The search and rescue operation receives reports of a fire at an island located in the search zone for AirAsia Flight QZ8501.According to CNN and CBS, two aircraft have been dispatched to investigate if the fire is linked to the missing aircraft.
This comes after the search effort is expanded to cover coastal land this morning, after two days of futile search.
Missing plane yet to be fitted with tracking tech
11.30am: AirAsia was upgrading its fleet of short-haul jets to make them easier to track, but hadn't modified the aircraft that disappeared on Sunday, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The report further states that the budget airline is an early adopter of a dedicated tracking service, ahead of an industry push to comprehensively follow planes in flight.
US sends its best search vessel to help
9.54am: The USS Sampson, a US destroyer, is expected to arrive later today to help search for the missing AirAsia aircraft.
In a statement issued from Yokosuka, Japan, the US military said that the US Pacific Command had ordered the Sampson to the "general search area" in response to a request from the government of Indonesia.
"The US Navy is working closely with the government of Indonesia to identify additional surface or airborne capabilities that can best assist their search efforts," the US military said.The Indonesian government had on Monday sent a diplomatic note to the US Embassy in Jakarta with the request for help, the US State Department said.
The Sampson is part of the US Seventh Fleet, under the US Pacific Command, and is part of an independent deployment to the Western Pacific.
Search area expanded
9.15am: The search and rescue efforts (SAR) have now been detailed into 13 zones. Indonesian authorities say that all areas are being combed, including on land, detik.com reports.
9am: RMN chief Abdul Aziz says the navy's search vessel KD Lekirhas entered the search site zone.
7.45am: Royal Malaysian Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar tweets that the search area has been expanded and revised.
Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/284865
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