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Jakarta Post

Still no trace of missing plane

Intensive search: Air Force pilot Major Akal Juang (right) and copilot First Lt

lna Parlina, Fedina S. Sundaryani and Indra Harsaputra (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Surabaya
Tue, December 30, 2014

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Still no trace of missing plane

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span class="inline inline-center">Intensive search: Air Force pilot Major Akal Juang (right) and copilot First Lt. Krisna onboard a C-310 Hercules aircraft search for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 near Belitung island on Monday. The Hercules took off from Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base in East Jakarta on Monday. The Air Force has dispatched five C-310 Hercules to search for the missing plane. JP/Awo

An international search operation to locate AirAsia flight QZ8501, missing since Sunday morning with 162 people on board, had drawn a complete blank by the end of its second day on Monday.

In what is the largest military deployment in Indonesian territory since that dispatched for the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami relief effort, pilots and sailors from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia searched for the plane which was last heard from about one hour into its flight, and which a local official said was probably at the bottom of the sea.

National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) chief Air Chief Marshall FH Bambang Soelistyo said he believed the chances were extremely slim of finding any survivors from the incident.

'€œThe last coordinates placed the plane over the sea, but we can'€™t find it, so it'€™s most likely that the plane is already somewhere at the bottom of the sea,'€ Bambang said without further elaboration.

AirAsia flight QZ8501, en route to Singapore from Indonesia'€™s second-biggest city Surabaya in East Java, was officially declared missing two-and-a-half hours after it took off at 5:36 a.m. on Sunday. It was scheduled to arrive at Changi International Airport at 8:30 a.m. local time.

Most of the people on board were Indonesian citizens, with seven foreign nationals '€” one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one British citizen, three South Koreans and the copilot, a French citizen.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that Indonesia would welcome the participation of other countries in the search, including from China, the United States and the United Kingdom with their advanced hardware.

South Korea said it would join the search mission on Tuesday and dispatched a P3 Orion surveillance aircraft.

'€œWe'€™ll not limit the search [efforts]. What is important is that we are trying our best,'€ Kalla said. '€œI hope the passengers'€™ families, friends and the public can prepare themselves for the worst.'€

In total, more than 26 vessels, 10 airplanes and 10 helicopters were dispatched on Monday.



Hopes were raised on Monday afternoon when the search team spotted traces of oil on the waters of Bangka-Belitung province where the plane'€™s last coordinates were located but Basarnas later confirmed that they came from passing ships.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, who returned on Monday evening to Jakarta from his blusukan (impromptu visit) to Indonesia'€™s most eastern and least-developed province of Papua, held his first press conference on the issue at Basarnas headquarters in North Jakarta.

'€œI was in Wamena, in the middle of a mountainous area in Papua, when the aircraft was declared missing by the authorities on Sunday morning. I was shocked and I thought of the families and relatives of the passengers,'€ he said.

'€œUntil now, we have to admit that we have yet to receive a clear position on the aircraft. We are hoping that the families and relatives will find the strength to cope with this ordeal; let us pray for the best.'€

State navigation operator AirNav Indonesia said on Monday that air traffic control (ATC) had been about to approve flight QZ8501'€™s request to climb to a higher altitude when the plane vanished.

According to AirNav safety and standards director Wisnu Darjono, the aircraft had requested permission from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport'€™s ATC to turn left at 6:12 a.m. to avoid a storm.

The request was immediately granted. The plane turned 7 nautical miles to its left. The plane'€™s pilot, Iriyanto, 53, then requested to take the plane higher to 38,000 feet from its position at 32,000 feet but did not explain why he wished to fly higher.

Jakarta'€™s ATC then contacted their counterparts at Changi to coordinate the pilot'€™s request.

'€œIt took us around two to three minutes to communicate with Singapore. We agreed to allow the plane to increase its height but only to 34,000 feet, because at that time another AirAsia flight, QZ8502, was flying at 38,000 feet,'€ he said. '€But when we informed the pilot of the approval at 6:14 a.m. we received no reply.'€

None of six other aircraft flying near flight QZ8501 picked up any distress call, nor did they confront heavy thunderstorms that forced them to request different routes, according to Wisnu. The route is among the busiest in the region.

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