Missing AirAsia plane: 'Suspicious objects' and oil spots seen in Java Sea by search crews as Singapore-bound flight carrying 162 probably 'at the bottom of the sea,' official says
An Australian plane and Indonesian helicopter have discovered possible wreckage and oil spots several hundred miles apart in the Java Sea on Monday, where AirAsia Flight 8501 is believed to have been it disappeared from radar, according to officials. The plane lost contact with air traffic control about 42 minutes after taking off from Surabaya early Sunday and had requested to change its route due to bad weather before it vanished.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, December 28, 2014, 1:27 PM
Updated: Monday, December 29, 2014, 4:33 AM
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An Australian search plane has spotted suspicious objects in the sea near Nangka Island and an Indonesian helicopter saw two oily spots hundreds of miles away on Monday as a desperate search for AirAsia Flight 8501 resumed, giving weight to an official’s fear that the plane and its 162 occupants are likely “at the bottom of the sea.”
A dozen rescue ships, three helicopters and five other aircraft were dispatched to scour a large area near Belitung Island in the Java Sea, where the plane was last spotted before it dropped off radar, officials said.
The Australian Orion aircraft made the discovery near central Kalimantan, or 700 miles from the location where the plane lost contact, Jakarta's Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto said.
"However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane," Putranto said. "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions."
The Indonesian helicopter located two oily spots east of Belitung Island. Unlike the Australian discovery, the oil was within the search area, which stretches 37 miles around the point where air-traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, Putranto said.
As distraught relatives of the missing jet’s passengers prayed for a miracle, the chief of Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency said the likelihood of finding survivors was remote.
ANGELA RANASTIANIS VIA PATHCaptain Iryanto (seen in a photo posted by his daughter) had logged 6,100 flying hours with AirAsia on the Airbus 320.
“Based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position ... the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea,” Bambang Soelistyo said early Monday in Indonesia.
Flight 8501 had taken off from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, at 5:31 a.m. local time en route to Singapore. But at 6:13 a.m., the pilot made a request to move to 34,000 feet from 32,000 feet to “avoid clouds,” said Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director of general transportation.
Minutes later, the plane, with 155 passengers and a crew of seven, vanished from the radar. Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians.
Murjatmodjo said no distress signal was made from the cockpit of the Airbus A320 before it disappeared.
He said the pilot’s request to climb higher could not be immediately granted due to air traffic at the time, including an aircraft that was above the AirAsia jet.
“We hope we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible, and we hope that God will give us guidance to find it,” Murjatmodjo said.
The plane had an Indonesian captain, Iryanto, who uses one name, and a French co-pilot, the airline said in a statement.
AirAsia said the captain had more than 20,000 flying hours, of which 6,100 were with AirAsia on the Airbus 320.
"Papa, come home, I still need you," Angela Anggi Ranastianis, the captain's 22-year-old daughter pleaded on her Path page late Sunday, which was widely quoted by Indonesian media. "Bring back my papa. Papa, please come home."
At Iryanto's house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbors, relatives and friends gathered Monday to pray and recite the Quran to support the distraught family. Their desperate cries were so loud, they could sometimes be heard outside where three LCD televisions had been set up to monitor search developments.
Based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position ... the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea.
"He is a good man. That's why people here appointed him as our neighborhood chief for the last two years," said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a friend and neighbor.
“He is always helping people because he is a very caring person. If there is a sick relative who needed help and even money, my uncle would be there,” the captain’s nephew, who would only identify himself as Doni, told the Indonesian website Detik.com.
Iriyanto’s first officer, Remi Emmanuel Plesel, a Frenchman, had 2,275 flying hours with AirAsia, according to the airline.
Geoffrey Thomas, an aviation expert and editor of airlineratings.com, said the plane appeared to be flying about 100 knots too slow to safely make the climb to higher altitude. Thomas said radar data showed the plane at a higher altitude than the pilot realized.
“I have radar plot which shows him at 36,000 feet and climbing at a speed of 357 knots, which is approximately 100 knots too slow,” Thomas told the Australian Associated Press.
ANTARA FOTO/REUTERSTwo members of the Indonesian Navy's Tactical Commanding Operator (TACCO) help with the search for AirAsia flight QZ 8501 on board a CN235 aircraft over Karimun Java.
He also said he spoke to pilots using flight simulator data to determine what happened to the jet.
“Pilots believe that the crew, in trying to avoid the thunderstorm by climbing, somehow have found themselves flying too slow and thus induced an aerodynamic stall,” Thomas said.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Malaysia-based AirAsia, said the disappearance of the plane was his “worse nightmare” come true.
“We’re very devastated by what’s happened. It’s unbelievable,” Fernandes said Sunday.
“Our concern right now is for the relatives and for the next of kin,” Fernandes added. “We hope that the aircraft is found quickly, and we can find out the cause of what happened.”
AFP PHOTO / FAMILY OF KHAIRUNISARohana released this photo of daughter Khairunisa, an AirAsia flight attendant who was traveling on the missing jet.
Fernandes confirmed that storm clouds caused the pilot to ask for a change in flight plan.
“We don’t want to speculate whether weather was a factor. We really don't know,” Fernandes said.
A search for the plane had been suspended Sunday evening due to ongoing winds, lightning and dense clouds, officials said.
The U.S. State Department has offered to help the search.
“As we have in the past, the United States stands ready to assist in any way that’s helpful,” the State Department said in a statement Sunday.
AirAsia said 149 Indonesians were aboard the plane. Other passengers included three from South Korea and one each from Britain, Malaysia and Singapore.
Stunned relatives of the missing passengers flocked to Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, pleading for information.
“We saw what happened on television, and we are coming here to find out what is happening,” said a tearful Oei Endang Sulsilowati, whose brother was aboard the plane with his wife and two children, ages 13 and 9.
“We don’t know what to do. We’re just waiting for news,” Sulsilowati told CNN.
Louis Sidharta, 25, was looking for word on her fiancé at the Changi Airport in Singapore, where Flight 8501 was headed.
WALLACE WOON/EPAAn electronic sign directs the relatives of the passengers of missing Air Asia flight QZ 8501 to a holding area at the Changi Airport in Singapore.
She said her fiancé and his family were aboard the plane heading on a vacation.
“It was supposed to be his last vacation with his family” before their wedding, Sidharta said.
“We had planned to marry in May next year,” said Sidharta. “We are not thinking negatively right now. We are only having positive thoughts.”
William Kai said he also was not giving up hope that his brother-in-law and three other relatives will be found alive.
“We cannot lose hope,” Kai told the BBC.
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The missing plane had been in operation since 2008 and had recorded 23,000 flight hours on 13,600 flights, according to manufacturer Airbus. Metal fatigue is not common in planes that young, experts said.
The incident sent AirAsia stock plummeting 13% on Monday morning — its biggest fall in three years.
The missing jet comes at the end of a disastrous year for air travel for Malaysia.
In March, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished without a trace while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers aboard. The largest and most expensive search in history failed to turn up any debris of the missing plane.
In July, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down, allegedly by pro-Russian separatists, near the Ukrainian-Russian border. All 283 passengers and 15 crew on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed.
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It’s too early to know for sure, but aviation experts speculated on several scenarios that could have brought down the flight.
Passing through bad weather such as severe thunderstorms could have been a factor, though Airbus jets have sophisticated computers that automatically adjust to wind shears or other weather disruptions.
Another possibility is some type of catastrophic implosion — the result of pressurization and depressurization from takeoffs and landings.
Finally, there is the chance of terrorism or a mass murder by the pilot. There’s no evidence of such a crime at this point, but neither can yet be ruled out.
