'Victims were still holding hands in the water': Search pilot claims he saw bodies of AirAsia passengers tragically linked together as divers prepare to retrieve wreckage of doomed jet
- Bodies of crash victims spotted floating in sea off coast of Borneo Island
- At least three bodies recovered from the water by Indonesian naval vessel
- A pilot involved in the search operation saw three bodies holding hands
- Officials have now confirmed wreckage is from AirAsia flight 8501
- Navy spokesman earlier claimed 40 bodies were retrieved from Java Sea
- But this figure has now been corrected to three by search and rescue teams
Three
people killed on AirAsia flight QZ8501 were holding hands when their
bodies were spotted floating in the Java sea off Indonesia, a pilot
involved in the search for the missing plane has claimed.
Lieutenant
Airman Tri Wobowo, who co-piloted the C130 Hercules aircraft that first
saw debris of the plane on Tuesday, told Indonesian newspaper Kompas: ‘There are seven to eight people. Three [of them] again hold hands.’
Since
wreckage from the plane was discovered off the coast of Borneo Island
after three days of searching there have been a number of different body
counts from several official sources.
Divers
and ships will search for the wreckage and the all important black
boxes of the doomed plane on Wednesday after officials confirmed that
the bodies and debris found are from flight 8501
The fuselage may be easily found as the aircraft probably only broke up when it hit the water, aviation experts believe.
Before
darkness fell in the area, search teams identified a shadow that they
believe to be the plane's fuselage in the sea, which is relatively
shallow at just 160 feet at its deepest point. Many of the remaining
victims are thought likely to still be on board the aircraft
The
Airbus A320-200 was 42 minutes into its flight from Surabaya in
Indonesia to Singapore on Sunday when it vanished with 162 people on
board.
A plastic suitcase, uninflated
emergency and oxygen tank from doomed flight 8501 were displayed by
rescue workers at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia earlier today
Live Indonesian television news footage showed at least one corpse floating in the water earlier today
A family member of passengers onboard
the missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501, reacts after
seeing an unidentified floating dead body during a search and rescue
(SAR) mission with Indonesian military
Rescue workers display the uninflated escape slide from flight 8501 at Pangkalan Bun airport in Indonesia
An oxygen tank from doomed AirAsia flight 8501 was found floating in the sea off the coast of Borneo island
Tragic: The
flight went missing from radar at 6.18am local time - six minutes after
last communication with air traffic control - while travelling from
Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board. Search and rescue
workers spotted a number of bodies and debris floating in the water this
morning
Several
pieces of red, white and black debris - including luggage, a plane door
and an emergency slide - were were spotted in the Java Sea near Borneo
island on Tuesday.
A
38-year-old Indonesian fisherman, Mohammed Taha, was reportedly the
first person to spot any wreckage - despite the multi-million air-search
for the jet.
Mr
Taha spotted metal objects in the water but didn't know a plane was
missing until he returned to his home in the village of Belinyu on
Monday, Indonesian news website Tempo reported.
'I found a lot of debris - small and large - in the Tujuh islands,' Mr Taha said.
'The
largest was four metres long and two metres wide. They were red
coloured with white silver. It looked like the AirAsia colours.'
The bodies were found in the Java Sea about six miles from Flight 8501's last communications with air traffic control.
Search
leader Bambang Soelistyo said: 'As the search and rescue coordinator, I
can 95 per cent confirm [this is] debris and objects from the plane.
The five per cent is simply because I haven't seen personally seen
them.'
Indonesian
President Joko Widodo also confirmed plans to visit both the crisis
center in Surabaya and the suspected crash location near Pangkalan Bun.
The emergency slide from flight 8501 was taken to an Indonesia Air Force press conference earlier today
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C)
speaking in an Air force aircraft Hercules C-130 during the search and
locate (SAL) operation for missing AirAsia flight QZ850
Indonesia's President joined search teams in the cockpit of a military plane on Wednesday
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (C)
leaves after meeting with family members of passengers onboard the
missing Malaysian air carrier AirAsia flight QZ8501, at the Juanda
International Airport in Surabaya
Indonesian people pray for passengers of the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 in Malang, East Java
A crew member of Indonesian Navy
CN-235 airplane prays prior to the start of a search operation for the
missing AirAsia flight 8501
This
morning AirAsia group chief executive Tony Fernandes said on Twitter:
'My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ
8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express
how sorry I am.'
Fernandes has told Indonesia's President that he believes the crash was caused solely by bad weather.
Despite
the black box recorder having not yet been found, Mr Fernandes said
there was 'some very unique weather conditions in the area at the time'.
He
then added:'We cannot make any assumptions about what went wrong. All I
can say is that the weather in south-east Asia is bad at the moment,'
the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
At
a press conference later in the day he added: 'This is a scar with me
for the rest of my life...There is at least some closure as opposed to
not knowing what's happened and holding out hope.'
There
were no immediate reports of any survivors, although the presence of a
life raft might raise hopes people survived the crash.
A
British national, named as Chi Man Choi, according to reports of the
passenger manifest in the Indonesian media, is among those on board the
plane.
He is thought to have been travelling with his daughter Zoe on tickets bought on Boxing Day.
Mr Chi is believed to hold a British passport but to have lived in Singapore with his family.
Members of the Indonesian Air Force show items retrieved from the Java Sea during the recovery operation
Officials have confirmed that the
bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Indonesia are from flight
8501, with naval rescue workers (pictured) said to be 'very busy'
locating and retrieving the victims
The
recovery of the three bodies came as devastated relatives of AirAsia
crash victims collapsed in grief and were taken to hospital after an
Indonesian television station showed disturbing uncensored footage of
the corpses floating in the sea.
Images
shown on a news channel showed at least one body floating in the water,
causing the victims' relatives - who were watching live reports at
crisis-centre at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya - to burst
into tears, with some fainting and requiring hospital treatment.
The decision to broadcast the uncensored images on live television has led to severe criticism of news channel TV One.
Grieving
friends and relatives of passengers sat sobbing quietly into tissues an
gazed into thin air as they took in the news and realized that the
'bodies could be their relatives.
Police officers had to be drafted in to stop press from entering the building, according to Time Magazine.
The bodies were seen from a helicopter and were taken to an Indonesian navy ship.
Navy
spokesman Manahan Simorangkir said several victims were found while Air
Force spokesman Hadi Tjahjanto said at least one body had been found.
Suitcases found floating with bodies in the Java Sea have been transported to an Indonesian military base
An Indonesian air force worker looks out of the window of an aeroplane during search and rescue operations
Indonesian Navy airmen search the waters near Bangka Island for debris from AirAsia Flight 8501
Earlier,
Indonesia National Search and Rescue spokesman Yusuf Latif said an
Indonesian military aircraft saw white, red and black objects, including
what appeared to be a lifejacket, off the coast, about 105 miles south
of Pangkalan Bun.
A
massive international search effort has been launched since Flight
8501, an Airbus A320-200 with 155 passengers and seven crew aboard,
disappeared from radar over the Java Sea near Belitung island.
The US, China, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand have all been involved in the search, with local fishermen helping.
The
news of the sighting of the debris came within two hours of it being
revealed that family members were intending to fly over the search area
on Sunday so they could pray for those who were missing.
It
was not immediately clear whether that charter flight will now go ahead
as officials said that viewing the debris would be likely to cause
great anxiety.
The
items are expected to be picked up by helicopters and flown to a search
and rescue co-ordination post on Belitung Island,lying between the
southern tip of Sumatra Island and the south of Borneo.
A large amount of debris from the plans has been located - including a life raft, life jackets and orange tubes
A photo taken from a search and rescue aircraft over the Java Sea shows debris from AirAsia flight 8501
Indonesian search teams believe this lump of metal is a door from missing AirAsia flight 8501
THE FULL STATEMENT FROM INDONESIA AIRASIA AFTER DEBRIS WAS FOUND
Indonesia
AirAsia regrets to inform that The National Search and Rescue Agency
Republic of Indonesia (BASARNAS) today confirmed that the debris found
earlier today is indeed from QZ8501, the flight that had lost contact
with air traffic control on the morning of 28th.
'Devastated': AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes has released a
statement after debris was found
The
debris of the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait around 110
nautical miles south west from Pangkalan Bun. The aircraft was an Airbus
A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were 155 passengers
on board, with 137 adults, 17 children and 1 infant. Also on board were
2 pilots, 4 cabin crews and one engineer.
At
the present time, search and rescue operations are still in progress
and further investigation of the debris found at the location is still
underway. Indonesia AirAsia employees have been sent to the site and
will be fully cooperating with BASARNAS, National Transportation Safety
Committee (NTSC), and relevant authorities on the investigation.
Sunu
Widyatmoko, Chief Executive Officer of Indonesia AirAsia said: 'We are
sorry to be here today under these tragic circumstances. We would like
to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of those on
board QZ8501. Our sympathies also go out to the families of our dear
colleagues.'
Tony
Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia added: 'I am
absolutely devastated. This is a very difficult moment for all of us at
AirAsia as we await further developments of the search and rescue
operations but our first priority now is the wellbeing of the family
members of those onboard QZ8501.'
Indonesia
AirAsia will be inviting family members to Surabaya, where a dedicated
team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that
all of their needs are met. Counsellors, religious and spiritual
personnel have also been invited to the family centre to provide any
necessary services.
Further
information will be released as soon as it becomes available. An
emergency call centre has been established and available for families
seeking information. Family members of QZ8501, please contact:
Malaysia: +60 3 21795959
Indonesia: +62 2129270811
Singapore: +65 63077688
Korea: 007 98142069940
Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families and friends of our passengers and colleagues on board QZ8501.
Family members are comforted by emergency workers at Juanda International airport
Relatives of
missing AirAsia passengers react to live news reports of bodies being
found off the coast of Borneo Island. The group were watching at a
crisis-centre set up at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya
Devastated relatives (pictured) of
AirAsia crash victims collapsed in grief and were taken to hospital
after an Indonesian television station showed disturbing images of
bodies floating in the sea
Earlier
on Tuesday, search jets were dispatched to Long Island, part of the
Indonesian archipelago, to investigate a smoke sighting as they hunted
for the aircraft,CNN reported.
While
the smoke sighting could have been one of many things, Dr Max Ruland,
Director of Operations for the search and rescue mission, confirmed to
CBS News that two Cessna jets had been dispatched.
The
Airbus A320-200 lost contact at about 6.17am local time en route from
Surabaya, in Indonesia's east Java, to Singapore after the crew
requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather.
Aviation
experts have revealed veteran pilots usually avoid the area known as
the 'thunderstorm factory' where AirAsia Flight 8501 went missing
because of its catastrophic storms.
Strategic Aviation Solutions chairman Neil Hansford told Channel 9's Today most flights went around the area and somebody 'dropped the ball' when they made the flight plan for QZ8501.
Australia added an extra plane in its contribution to the search on Tuesday.
Two
RAAF P3 Orion planes with specialist equipment are now part of the
international hunt to find the aircraft. Their search is focused to the
west of the island of Kalimantan, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.
The
US navy also agreed to join the multi-national search operation on its
third day and have reportedly sent USS Sampson to assist.
Rescue workers load body bags onto a flight to Kalimantan in Pangkal Pinang to collect the dead bodies
Live images shown on Indonesian
television showed at least one corpse floating in the water, causing
families of the missing to burst into tears and at least one woman to
collapse in grief
Family members of passengers onboard
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 react to news about the discovery of debris found
floating in the search area
Indonesian
search and rescue aircraft have recorded images
of debris on the Java
Sea. Authorities are investigating
whether they could be pieces of
missing AirAsia flight QZ8501
Objects include a plane door, an emergency slide, and what might be a life raft and life jackets
A
statement from the Pentagon said Indonesia had requested their help and
their assistance 'could include some air, surface and sub-surface
detection capabilities'.
Day
three of the search saw the operation expand to land, including the
western part of West Kalimantan province, National Search and Rescue
Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo confirmed.
Dozens
of planes and ships focused their search on two patches of oil spotted
in Indonesian waters on Monday as a senior official warned the aircraft
was likely at the 'bottom of the sea'. But the patch later emerged to be
a coral reef, 9News reported.
Mr Soelistyo said an Indonesian corvette - a warship - was sent to test the spills.
It
has also emerged one of the pilots on-board the missing flight had been
denied a request to increase altitude to avoid storm clouds minutes
before it disappeared.
In
the last communication with air traffic control, six minutes before it
vanished off radar, a pilot asked permission to turn left and climb from
32,000 feet to 38,000 feet due to the adverse weather.
But
the request could not immediately be granted because another plane was
in the airspace at 34,000 feet, Bambang Tjahjono, director of the
state-owned company in charge of air-traffic control, said.
By the time clearance could be given, Flight 8501 had disappeared, he added.
Search and rescue workers load body bags onto a flight for use at the crash scene
Stacks of body bags are seen being prepared for transportation to the crash site earlier this morning
This morning AirAsia group chief
executive Tony Fernandes said: 'My heart is filled with sadness for all
the families involved in QZ 8501. On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to
all'
AirAsia's
fleet of short-haul jets was already being fitted with upgraded
tracking devices, but the A320 jetliner had not yet been modified when
it went missing, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Waters in the search area, which is roughly the size of California, are not particularly deep at between 130 feet and 160 feet.
In
Singapore on Tuesday, people were beginning to make comparisons with
the early days of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which lost contact in
March this year and has remained missing, with aviation experts
concluding that it had probably gone down in the southern Indian Ocean.
A
widespread search of the South China Sea where it last made contact
failed to turn up anything other than debris and oil slicks that,
officially, were not linked to the aircraft.
Mr Thomas said this should not happen in an A320, so it appears as though it was related to extreme weather conditions.
'He got caught in a massive updraft or something like that. Something's gone terribly wrong,' he said.
Officers of Indonesian Search And
Rescue Agency check a map at the command centre at Juanda International
Airport in Surabaya. More planes will be in the air and more ships at
sea in the next day searching for AirAsia Flight 8501
An Indonesia Navy search and rescue
crew looks for AirAsia QZ 8501 on a Maritime Patrol Navy Aircraft above
Bangka-Belitung Islands in the Java Sea
The
scenes of grief at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport and in
Beijing where MH370 was due to land are now being repeated among
relatives and friends in Singapore and Surabaya.
At a centre set up for relatives of the passengers in Surabaya, anger was growing at the lack of information.
Referring
to the search teams, Franky Chandra, who has a sibling and three
friends on the AirAsia flight, said: 'We only need clear information
every hour on where they are going.
'We've been here for two days but the information is unclear. That's all we need... information.'
Speculation on the cause of the plane's disappearance has centred on weather, speed and an older radar system.
Aviation
experts have speculated that the flight may have encountered 'black
storm cells' which caused a build-up of ice on airspeed senors known as
pitot tubes.
A
similar scenario was blamed for the Air France disaster when Flight
AF447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 while en route from Rio De
Janeiro to Paris.
Aviation
expert Geoffrey Thomas spoke to several check captains and believes the
pilot of QZ8501 encountered difficult weather conditions but flew too
slow in his efforts to avoid it.
'The
QZ8501 was flying too slow, about 100 knots which is about 160 km/h too
slow. At that altitude that's exceedingly dangerous,' Mr Thomas said.
'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 similar to the circumstances of the loss of Air France
AF447 to crash in 2009.'
'I
have a radar plot which shows him at 36,000 feet and climbing at a
speed of 353 knots, which is approximately 100 knots too slow ... if the
radar return is correct, he appears to be going too slow for the
altitude he is flying at,' Mr Thomas said.
Aviation Safety Network posted this
radar graphic on Twitter showing all the flights in the air at the time
QZ8501 went missing. A request by one of the pilots to increase altitude
due to stormy weather conditions was denied because another jet was in
the airspace at the time, it emerged today
An Indonesian Navy soldier points to
the search area for the missing AirAsia plane, on a map at the Navy
Port, in Batam, Riau, Indonesia
'Essentially
the plane is flying too slow to the altitude and the thin air, and the
wings won't support it at that speed and you get a stall, an aerodynamic
stall.'
The A320, while sophisticated, is not equipped with the latest radar, Mr Thomas said.
The
radar used by the A320 can sometimes have problems in thunderstorms and
the pilot may have been deceived by the severity of these particular
ones.
The
latest technology radars, which were pioneered by Qantas in 2002, can
give a more complete and accurate reading of a thunderstorm, but they
will not be certified for the A320 until next year.
'If
you don't have what's called a multi-skilled radar you have to tilt the
radar yourself manually, you have to look down to the base of the
thunderstorm to see what the intensity of the moisture and the rain is,
then you make a judgment of how bad it is.
'It's manual, so it's possible to make a mistake, it has happened,' Mr Thomas explained.
In
a separate development, Earth Network, a firm that monitors weather
conditions around the world, recorded a number of lightning strikes
'near the path' of the plane when it disappeared on Sunday morning, it
was reported by the New York Times.
Although
unlikely to have caused structural damage to the A320, lightning can
affect navigation systems and flashes could temporarily disorient
pilots, the paper notes.
Sudden
shifts in wind direction also have the potential to force jet engines
into a stall, although experts this scenario is very unlikely and point
to the fact that the Airbus A320 is certified to fly up to three hours
on a single engine.
AirAsia
confirmed there were 155 passengers on board - including 138 adults, 16
children and one infant - and also stated there were two pilots, four
flight attendants and one engineer on board.
Nationalities
of passengers and crew on board are one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one
British, one French, three South Koreans and 155 Indonesians.
The
last communication from the cockpit to air traffic control was a
request by one of the pilots to increase altitude from 32,000 feet to
38,000 feet because of the rough weather.
Air
traffic control was not able to immediately grant the request because
another plane was in airspace at 34,000 feet, said Bambang Tjahjono,
director of the state-owned company in charge of air-traffic control.
By the time clearance could be given, Flight 8501 had disappeared, Tjahjono said.
Aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas (above) believes the plane,
piloted by Captain Iriyanto, was flying too slowly
The
twin-engine, single-aisle plane, which never sent a distress signal,
was last seen on radar four minutes after the last communication from
the cockpit.
Search
efforts for the plane's wreckage resumed on Monday at first light and
were focused around the area of the Java Sea near Belitung.
'UNBEARABLE' WAIT FOR BROTHER OF MISSING BRITISH PASSENGER AND TWO-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER
The
brother of a British man who was travelling on the passenger jet
missing off the coast of Indonesia today said the wait for news is
'unbearable' as the family prepares 'for the worst'.
Chi-Man Choi, pictured right,
who is originally from Hull, Yorkshire, was flying from Indonesia to
Singapore with his two-year-old daughter, Zoe, where they were expected
to reunite with his wife and son.
His
brother, Chi-Wai Choi, said he was comforting his elderly parents,
hoping for positive news but nevertheless 'preparing them for the
worst.'
'It
doesn't look good at the moment. I am sure if there was anything to
find then they would have found it by now.' he told The Sun. 'It is a
very tricky time at the moment. We are just holding together for my
parents.
'They don't know what to make of it.'
Chi-Man Choi, a University of Essex graduate, was the managing director of an energy company in Indonesia.
He
purchased his plane ticket and that of his daughter on Boxing Day -
according to the passenger manifest - and they were seated in the first
row, in seats 1B and 1C.
Earlier,
the billionaire CEO of AirAsia described missing flight QZ8501 as his
'worst nightmare' as the massive air and sea search for the plane
resumed at first light on Monday.
Tony
Fernandes spoke of his horror over the situation after the plane lost
contact with air traffic control, a short time after the pilot asked to
deviate from the flight path due to 'bad weather'.
Upon
first arriving in Indonesia, Mr Fernandes gave a press conference to
family and friends of those on board the plane and said the focus should
be on the search and the families.
The
50-year-old built AirAsia from a small, heavily indebted company to a
huge low-cost airline after buying it for just 50 cent in 2001. He later
expanded into long-hail flights with the AirAsia X brand.
The
fishing boats and official vessels that were sent out by Indonesia's
national search and rescue authority, along with helicopters and
Hercules aircraft from Singapore, set out again at sunrise on Monday
morning.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott offered the nation's help to assist in the search on Sunday.
Despite
comparisons of QZ8501 to this year's earlier Malaysia Airlines
tragedies, Mr Abbott said the AirAsia flight's disappearance was a
tragedy but 'This is not a mystery like the MH370 disappearance and it's
not an atrocity like the MH17 shooting down'.
MH370 disappeared in March while on its way from Malaysia to China when it lost contact. The aircraft has not been seen since.
Five
months later, MH17 was flying over Ukrainian airspace when it was shot
down by a surface-to-air missile. All 298 people on board the flight
died.
'PAPA, PLEASE COME HOME': FAMILY'S TORMENT OVER MISSING AIRASIA PILOT WHO FLEW F-16 JETS BEFORE BECOMING COMMERCIAL CAPTAIN
The
daughter of the missing AirAsia captain today made an emotional plea
for her father to come home, telling him: 'I still need you'.
Captain
Iriyanto disappeared in airspace thick with storm clouds between
Indonesia and Singapore while piloting Flight 8501 with 162 people on
board yesterday.
His
picture was posted on social media by his 22-year-old daughter Angela
Ranastianis with the heartbreaking message: 'Papa, please come home, I
still need you. Bring back my papa.'
Cpt Iriyanto's father said the last time he saw his son was at the funeral of his other son who died of diabetes last week.
'Papa, come home, I still need you':
Angela Ranastianis, the daughter of missing AirAsia pilot Iriyanto, has
made an emotional appeal for her father to return safely after posting
this picture with him online
Suwarto, who has only one name, told the BBC he hoped he would see his son again, but accepted it would be God's will if he didn't.
At
Iryanto's house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbours,
relatives and friends gathered 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.
'He
is a good man. That's why people here appointed him as our
neighbourhood chief for the last two years,' said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a
friend and neighbour, adding that despite being busy with his job,
Iryanto was always very active in the community and attentive to the
needs of the people around him.
Double tragedy: Cpt Iriyanto's father,
Suwarto (above) said the last time he saw his son was at the funeral of
his other
son who died of diabetes last week
Cpt
Iriyanto's nephew told Indonesian news outlet Detik.com his uncle, who
is married with two young children, was 'a very caring person'.
He
said: '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.
'If there are money problems in the family, he would surely help.'
Many
recalled him as an experienced Air Force pilot who flew F-16 fighter
jets before taking early retirement to become a commercial airline
pilot.
Cpt
Iriyanto was 'was one of the best graduates' at the military academy,
the Adi Sucipto Air Force pilot school, in 1983, former coordinating
political, legal and security affairs minister Djoko Suyanto told the Jakarta Post.
'Iriyanto
was known as one of the "Flight Leaders" on F-5 Tigers, the leading
fighter jet in the 1980s,' said Yadi, who once served with Iriyanto in
the 14th squadron.
AirAsia said the captain had more than 20,000 flying hours, of which 6,100 were with AirAisa on the Airbus 320.
Mr
Abbott was speaking on Macquarie Radio on Monday, adding: 'It's an
aircraft that was flying a regular route on a regular schedule, it
struck what appears to have been horrific weather and it's downed'.
The Australian Defence Force deployed a RAAF AP-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft to assist on Monday.
Air
Chief Marshal Mark Binskin said the aircraft had 'a well-proven
capability in search and rescue and carries maritime search radar
coupled with infra-red and electro-optical sensors'.
The
pilot of the AirAsia plane has been named as Captain Iriyanto, while
the co-pilot is believed to be Frenchman Remi Emmanual Plesel. A
picture of the pilot has been posted on social media by his daughter
Angela Ranastianis.
Cpt Iriyanto's nephew told Indonesian news outlet Detik.com his uncle, who is married with two young children, was 'a very caring person'.
'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 relative said.
'If there are money problems in the family, he would surely help.
A family including a groom-to-be and his parents and brother were reportedly among those onboard.
Fox News reported Alain Oktavianus Siaun and his family were intending to enjoy one last holiday together before he married.
His fiancee Louise Sidharta told The Star in Malaysia she was trying to stay positive.
Indonesian AirAsia stewardess
Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, who was listed as one of the seven crew members
on board missing flight QZ8501
AirAsia flight attendant Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi was
travelling on the missing AirAsia flight
Rohana, the mother of Khairunisa, points towards her daughter (left in framed picture) in a family photograph
She said: 'I heard it on the radio and immediately browsed the Internet and saw the news.
'My heart knew by then that my fiancé was on that flight.'
But Ms Sidharta said she would not give up.
'We have to stay positive and hope that they [loved ones] could be found soon,' she said.
The
British passenger aboard the missing AirAsia flight was travelling with
his two-year-old Singaporean daughter after other family members got an
earlier flight from Indonesia, it is believed.
It
is thought the British father, named as Chi Man Choi, and his daughter
Zoe, were returning to Singapore and planned to reunite with the young
girl's Singaporean mother, who travelled on an earlier flight from
Surabaya, in Indonesia, with Zoe's older brother.
An AirAsia flight
- which was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC
(pictured above) - that departed Surabaya early Sunday morning was meant
to land at Changi Airport
Mr
Choi, who is believed to be from Hull in Yorkshire originally and who
graduated from the University of Essex, was the managing director at an
energy company in Indonesia.
He
purchased his plane ticket and that of his daughter's on Boxing Day -
according to the passenger manifest - and they were seated in the first
row, in seats 1B and 1C.
The
Foreign Office was unable to formally confirm the British national's
identity but confirmed a Briton was on board and next of kin had been
informed.
A spokesman said: 'We are aware of an incident regarding AirAsia flight QZ8501.
'Our thoughts are with the passengers' families as they await further news.
'We have been informed by the local authorities that one British national was on board.
'Their next of kin has been informed, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance.'
A spokesman for the British Embassy in Jakarta said it was working with local authorities to establish further details.
It
is believed the three South Koreans on the plane were Park Seong-beom,
37, his wife Lee Kyung-hwa, 36, and their 12-month daughter Park Yuna.
According
to officials at Yeosu First Presbyterian Church, the couple had been
sent to Indonesia as Christian missionaries and were travelling to
Singapore to renew their visas.
According
to Indonesia's Director of Air Transport, Djoko Murjatmodjo, contact
with the aircraft was lost between Tanjung Pandan and Pontianak, a
trading port city in west Kalimantan about 100 nautical miles south east
of Tanjung Pandan.
AirAsia
Indonesia announced the flight's disappearance via a statement on
Facebook which said: '[It] regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from
Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at
07.24hrs this morning'.
'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,'
it said.
'At this time, search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service.'
It
later issued a statement confirming it had set up emergency briefing
rooms for family members of the missing passengers at both airports.
A relative looks at the list of passengers of the missing AirAsia flight at Juanda Airport in Indonesia
Sunu Widyatmoko, chief executive of AirAsia Indonesia, said: 'We are deeply shocked and saddened by this incident.
'We
are cooperating with the relevant authorities to the fullest extent to
determine the cause of this incident. In the meantime, our main priority
is keeping the families of our passengers and colleagues informed on
the latest developments.
'We
will do everything possible to support them as the investigation
continues and have already mobilised a support team to help take care of
their immediate needs, including accommodation and travel
arrangements.'
Tatang
Zaenudin, deputy of personnel at Basarnas, said that the agency was
working to approve flights from Australia to aid with the huge operation
to locate the plane, reported The Sun Herald.
AirAsia changed the colour of its logo from red to grey as a mark of respect to the missing plane.
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC.
An
A320 pilot writing on the aviation forum Aviation.net said the weather
as the AirAsia flight headed north east was 'nasty' but he believed that
it would not be enough to cause a major structural failure.
Flight attendent Oscar Desano (above right) is believed to have been on board the missing flight
'While
the weather on the route looks rather nasty, I have always found that
the A320 is a really solid aircraft in turbulence,' the pilot, writing
from Canada, said
'I've
flown it through bad winter storms, tropical thunderstorms and all
sorts of combined weather and I've never felt that the aircraft was
being held together on a hope and a prayer.'
Other
crew members lost along with the pilot and co-pilot were four flight
attendants are listed as Wanti Setiawati, Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar
Desano and Wismoyo Ari Prambudi as well as technician Saiful Rakhmad.
On Christmas Eve, Desano wrote on Twitter: 'Merry Christmas to all my beautiful friends who celebrate it.'
He also posted a picture of himself wearing his AirAsia identification tag.
AirAsia flies mostly in the South East Asian area, its reach being as far as Sydney and the Queensland Gold Coast.
The
Department of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement to Fairfax Media,
saying it was checking with the Australian Embassy in Jakarta and the
Australian High Commissioner in Singapore to see if any of the
passengers were holding an Australian passport.
'Those
concerned about the welfare of their Australian family and friends who
were known to be travelling on this flight should contact the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade's 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on
1300 555 135 (or +61 2 6261 3305 if calling from overseas),' the
statement read.
The United States also offered to help with the search.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said: 'Our hearts and hopes are with the passengers and families of AirAsia QZ8501.'
AirAsia
has established an Emergency Call Centre available for family or
friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft.
The number for
the hotline is +622129850801.
Read more:
- Australian Breaking News Headlines & World News Online | SMH.com.au
- Live: AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore loses contact with air traffic control - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore loses contact
- detikcom : situs warta era digital
- Families, relatives tense after AirAsia plane carrying 162 disappears | Fox News
- Missing AirAsia plane no atrocity, says Tony Abbott
- AirAsia Upgrading Jets for Improved Tracking; Flight 8501 Not Modified - WSJ
- AirAsia flight flew through ‘thunderstorm factory’: expert - 9news.com.au
- No sign of AirAsia Flight QZ8501; search resumes, grows - CNN.com
- Fifty planes, choppers and ships search for AirAsia flight - 9news.com.au
- AirAsia flight QZ8501: 'Unique weather' may have caused plane crash, says CEO
- AirAsia pilot one of military academy’s best graduates | The Jakarta Post
- Ada 3 Jasad Bergandeng Tangan di Lokasi Penemuan Puing AirAsia QZ8501 - Kompas.com
- Werribee Zoo forced to euthanise white rhino calf
- Tempo.Co :: Indonesian News Portal
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