SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Indonesia’s civil aviation chief has confirmed that the debris spotted in the Java Sea belongs to missing AirAsia flight QZ8501.
Several pieces of debris seen floating in the sea off Borneo island are linked to the missing AirAsia jetliner.
The plane with 162 people on board disappeared Sunday on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore after encountering storm clouds. A massive international search effort has been launched since Flight 8501 disappeared from radar over the Java Sea near Belitung island.
The plane vanished Sunday halfway into what should have been a two-hour hop from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. The Airbus A320-200 is believed to have crashed into Indonesia’s Java Sea, a busy shipping lane where water on average is only 45 meters (150 feet) deep.
The AirAsia pilots had been worried about the weather on Sunday and had sought permission to climb above threatening clouds, but were denied due to heavy air traffic. Minutes later, the jet was gone from the radar without issuing a distress signal.
Pilots rely on sophisticated weather-radar systems that include a dashboard display of storms and clouds, as well as reports from other crews, to steer around dangerous weather, and it’s unlikely that alone would cause the plane to crash.
“A lot more information is available to pilots in the cockpit about weather” than ever, said Deborah Hersman, former chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board. But the technology has limits and sometimes information about storms “can be a little bit stale.”
The suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia, and Malaysia in particular. Malaysia-based AirAsia’s loss comes on top of the mystery surround Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew.
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