With the missing of flight MH370 in March 2014 still unresolved and the downing of flight MH17 on July 2014 in Ukraine, the new missing flight QZ8501 operated by AirAsia added another tragedy to the Malaysian aviation industry. The missing flight with 162 people on board was bound to Singapore from Juanda international airport in Surabaya.
The flight disappeared from the radar 40 minutes after take off from Surabaya. The pilot is said to have a last communication with air traffic control before it disappeared, requesting a permission to increase its altitude to 34,000 feet to avoid clouds.
Most of the passenger were Indonesian, with three from South Korea, one from Malaysia, one briton and one frenchman co-pilot, Remi Emmanual Plesel.
During the search of MH370 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia professor for hydrography and ocean mapping Prof Dr Mohd Razali Mahmud said that the search is a nightmare due to the region isolation, severe waves and strong winds. But this time the chances of finding the missing flight is higher because of the ocean is shallower and the area is heavily trafficked. Jeff Pegues, CBS News correspondent cited that the search won’t drag out.
Plane wreckage found in Belitung
Early speculation claimed that the plane crashed near the Belitung Islands were quickly spread. This unconfirmed report is then dismissed by Malaysia’s Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
He also urge the peoples not to spread the news from unverified sources and stay calm during this tough times. He is quoted to say:
There are plenty of speculations that they have found the plane. At this point of time, it is not true. We are still looking for the plane.
The search continue
The first light on Monday seeing the search operation continue to find the missing flight. The search now amplified as Australia join the search with its Air Force sending a search plane.
While the search operation was already been jointly organized by three countries Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that are directly affected by the event, the US Navy is a potential partner that will provide assistance. In a statement the Navy has said that:
As we have in the past, the U.S. Navy assets in 7th Fleet stand ready to assist in any way that’s helpful.