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Kalla cancels year-end vacation in Bali, focuses on AirAsia flight search
Following the disappearance of AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 with 162 people on board on Sunday morning, Vice President Jusuf Kalla cancelled on Monday a planned New Year vacation with his family on the resort island of Bali
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ollowing the disappearance of AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 with 162 people on board on Sunday morning, Vice President Jusuf Kalla cancelled on Monday a planned New Year vacation with his family on the resort island of Bali.
"The Vice President is tremendously concerned with all the passengers and their loved ones in the tragic fate of AirAsia flight QZ8501. Given such a situation, a plan to close the year in Bali as scheduled on Dec. 30 will be entirely cancelled," said vice presidential spokesman Husain Abdullah in a statement on Monday.
Husain said that Kalla would focus on the search and rescue mission for the flight and would deploy all available resources to support the efforts.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who remained in Papua conducting blusukan (impromptu visits) after the accident happened, has directed Kalla to coordinate the search mission while he provides instruction from Indonesia's highly challenged easternmost province.
Jokowi is scheduled to return to Jakarta later on Monday.
The aircraft, with 155 passengers on board, including one Briton, one Malaysian, one Singaporean and three Koreans, as well as seven crew, one of whom was a French national, lost contact with air traffic control at around 6:17 a.m. local time on Sunday.
The plane is reported to have requested a change in route before it lost contact. Several officials have suggested that the plane's last coordinates were located close to Bangka-Belitung province. (ren/nfo)(++++)
