AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 missing / crashed

[Wohowbagger]

Now on the AV Herald:
"Crash: Indonesia Asia A320 over Java Sea on Dec 28th 2014, aircraft went missing believed to have impacted waters"
http://avherald.com/h?article=47f6abc7&opt=0


An AirAsia flight travelling from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, the company has said.

Indonesian media say 162 people were on board.

The aircraft, flight number QZ8501, lost contact with air traffic control just after 07:00am local time, AirAsia tweeted.

Source: BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30614627

[Wohowbagger]

Some more info in South China Morning Point:

An Air Asia flight is reportedly missing after losing contact with air traffic control while travelling in Indonesian airspace, according to reports.
Flight QZ 8501 had taken off from Surabaya at 5.35am today, but lost contact 42 minutes into the journey, the reports said.
The flight was bound for Singapore. Initial reports suggested the Airbus A320-200 was carrying more than 150 passengers, mostly Indonesians.
Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa said the aircraft lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6.17am local time.
He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact.
Mustofa said the plane lost contact when it was believed to be over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java islands.
Mustofa said there were 155 people and seven crew on the flight, but Indonesian media reports put the figure at 161 - including six crew members.
There were also 17 children onboard, among them an infant, the local TV and online reports said. Indonesia TV reported an initial tally of passengers: 149 Indonesians, one Singaporean, one Briton and one Malaysian.
The flight had been due in Singapore at 8.30am. The Singapore airport said on its website the status of the flight was "delayed".
...
Air Asia said this morning it was investigating what happened to Flight QZ 8501 and that a search and rescue operation was "under way".

“At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available,” the airline said.

It also established a hotline (+622 129 850 801) to help family members during the emergency.

http://www.scmp.com//news/asia/article/ ... ng-reports

[Wohowbagger]

The unusual route (now a change of altitude) could've been caused by local bad weather.
There were other planes in the direct neighbourhood.

Last contact at 32.000ft and 469kts (on FR24).
Last Jakarta ATC contact was at 07.24am local time, just east of Belitung Island (about 400km N of Jakarta)(the round island ENE of the plane on the map below). The ATC reported it to Singapore ATC at 07.55am local time.

Flightradar24 ADS-B coverage via: http://www.flightradar24.com/data/fligh ... 1/#5240449

Note: not the whole traject is followed by FR24 cause of bad coverage.
It is probable the plane was in the 'black' zone of FR24.

Search & Rescue operation has begun.
(BTW: typing this while info is coming in)

Breaking News is quite handy with updates:
http://www.breakingnews.com/topic/air-a ... c-27-2014/

[andorra-airport]

Some pictures .

Airplaine is yellow arrow.

The weather:



And the loadsheet : they were heavy.

http://jansaviation.com/files/QZ8501-LoadTrim.pdf

Source: Reddit.

[luchtzak]

AirAsia Indonesia press statement: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines_press_r ... ntact-atc/

[airazurxtror]

Indonesian transport officials have confirmed the pilot’s name as Iriyanto (Indonesians often go by a single name). The copilot, who is French, has been named as Remi Emmanuel Plesel.

Airbus regrets to confirm that an A320-200 operated by AirAsia Indonesia lost contact with air traffic control this morning, 28th December 2014. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, Flight QZ 8501, from Surabaya to Singapore.
The aircraft involved is MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 3648, registered as PK-AXC and was delivered to AirAsia from the production line in October 2008. Powered by CFM 56-5B engines, the aircraft had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2 ... 1ee5e565be

[sn26567]

Updated location of last QZ8501 contact moves east, says Indonesian transport ministry: 03°09'15.0"S 111°28'21.0”E

[sn26567]

It seems that a KLM flight had serious difficulties in the same region. It landed safely at Kuala Lumpur.



Source: Joost Freys (HLN) and FR24

[sn26567]

QZ5801 dispatch info shows it took off with 8296 kgs of fuel; minimum sector fuel is 7725 kgs; planned fuel consumtion: 5211 kgs

Load and trim sheet of missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 as released by Indonesian Ministry of Transport



Source: Aviation Safety

Transport Minister says Malaysia deployed three ships, one plane to search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501.

[sn26567]

Airbus Media Information (Issue 1) - 28 December 2014

AIRASIA INDONESIA FLIGHT QZ 8501

Airbus regrets to confirm that an A320-200 operated by AirAsia Indonesia lost contact with air traffic control this morning, 28th December 2014. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, Flight QZ 8501, from Surabaya to Singapore.

The aircraft involved is MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 3648, registered as PK-AXC and was delivered to AirAsia from the production line in October 2008. Powered by CFM 56-5B engines, the aircraft had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights. At this time no further factual information is available.

In line with the ICAO Annex 13 international convention, Airbus will provide full assistance to the French safety investigation authority, BEA, and to the authorities in charge of the investigation.

The Airbus A320-200 is a twin-engine single-aisle aircraft seating up to 180 passengers in a single-class configuration. The first A320 entered service in March 1988. By the end of November 2014, over 6000 A320 Family aircraft were in service with over 300 operators. To date, the entire fleet has accumulated some 154 million flight hours in some 85 million flights.

Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed and cleared by the authorities.

The thoughts of the Airbus management and staff are with all those affected by Flight QZ 8501.

[quixoticguide]

[Updated statement] QZ8501 (as at 6:54pm, GMT+8)
AirAsia Indonesia would like to issue a correction on the nationality breakdown of passenger and crew on board QZ8501 as follows:

Nationalities of passengers:
1 Singapore
1 Malaysia
3 South Korea
1 United Kingdom
149 Indonesia

Nationalities of crew:
1 France
6 Indonesia

[luchtzak]

Search has been suspended overnight.

[heloflyer]

To me this sounds very similar to the Air France 447 crash all over again! Will wait and see when we get more information.

[Conti764]

To me this sounds very similar to the Air France 447 crash all over again! Will wait and see when we get more information.

If true, what might it mean for Airbus?

[Malaysia]

To me this sounds very similar to the Air France 447 crash all over again! Will wait and see when we get more information.

If true, what might it mean for Airbus?

Looks like someone doesn't know what the factors were which played a huge role in the Air France 447 crash.

[RoMax]

To me this sounds very similar to the Air France 447 crash all over again! Will wait and see when we get more information.

If true, what might it mean for Airbus?

Looks like someone doesn't know what the factors were which played a huge role in the Air France 447 crash.

As far as I remember the blame for that crash was mainly on the pilots, their total lack of knowing what was going on, pulling up while they were in a continuous stall and Thales(?) that was partly blamed for the design of their pitot tubes which was too vulnerable for icing?

So if it's a similar situation to the AF447 one, I don't think Airbus will be the one to blame for it.

[quixoticguide]

To me this sounds very similar to the Air France 447 crash all over again! Will wait and see when we get more information.

It's to early for speculations. There was bad weather in the area at the time, but 100s of airlines fly daily through bad weather.

[Flanker2]

The pilot community is very informed about the AF447 accident. It's unlikely any pilot would repeat their mistakes.

Commercial aircraft wings are designed for 6G positive loads, but only about 2-3G negative loads. If they entered clouds that were too much for the aircraft to handle then it could have caused catastrophic structural failure.
However, they have had an entire day to search for a field of debris. A plane coming down from that altitude and with structural failure would have resulted in a very large debris field. See MH17. In addition, the ELT and ULB would have been easy to track if this is what happened, unless they are totally incompetent.

The bomb scenario has some credibility to it.

Or:it could be another MH370.
This happened less than an hour flying from MH370's last known position.
I still believe that MH370 was either hi-jacked to West-China or its contents offloaded in the Strait of Malacca before it was sent on to a final resting location (the Southern arc). The pirates in Malacca might have found a new stream of revenue after their sea operations have been compromised....

[Wohowbagger]

If MH370 has learned us something is that we don't need to speculate.
It's just 30hs since it went missing.
Let's stick to the facts.

Fact is: it disappeared over a sea, or area, as big as Belgium. It was very stormy, it was climbing from FL320 to FL380. It was trying to avoid the heaviest of the local stormcells.

And then the Marsmen came.

[sn26567]

It was very stormy, it was climbing from FL320 to FL380.

Are you sure it was climbing? To my knowledge, the pilots asked for authorisation to climb, but ATC refused.