Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501

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This aviation disaster documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. (December 2014)

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501
Incident summary
PK-AXC, the aircraft involved in the incident, photographed in August 2011
Date	28 December 2014
Summary	Missing
Site	Last known location at Java Sea 3.2466°S 109.3682°ECoordinates: 3.2466°S 109.3682°E^[1]
Passengers	155
Crew	7
Missing	162 (all)
Aircraft type	Airbus A320-216
Operator	Indonesia AirAsia
Registration	PK-AXC
Flight origin	Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia
Destination	Singapore Changi Airport

Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 (QZ8501/AWQ8501) is an Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320-216 flight that went missing en route to Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, on 28 December 2014^[2] with 155 passengers and 7 crew on board.^[3]

Disappearance

Flight path.

The flight took off from Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, at 05:35 Western Indonesian Time (WIB, UTC+7) and was scheduled to land at Singapore Changi Airport at 08:30 Singapore Standard Time (SGT, UTC+8).^[4] The plane had been under Indonesian air traffic control when it requested to deviate from its original flight path due to poor weather conditions.^[5] The pilot had requested to climb to 38,000 feet (11,600 m) to avoid thick cloud,^[6] although the final altitude indicated by the transponder and collected by Flightradar24 is 32,000 ft (9,750 m).^[4] The plane lost contact with air traffic control at 06:24 WIB while travelling over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java,^[3] still under Indonesian Air Traffic Control, at normal cruising altitude and speed.^[7] A meteorological analysis revealed that the aircraft was traversing a storm cluster during the minutes prior to its disappearance.^[8]
No distress signal was sent from the missing aircraft, the Indonesian Transport Ministry said.^[9]^[10]

Timeline of disappearance

Elapsed (HH:MM)	Time			Event
Elapsed (HH:MM)	UTC	Western Indonesian Time UTC+7	Singapore Standard Time UTC+8	Event
00:00	27 December	28 December		Took off from Juanda International Airport
00:00	22:35	05:35	06:35	Took off from Juanda International Airport
00:42	23:17	06:17	07:17	Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority - Lost from Indonesian air traffic control radars.^[11]
00:49	23:24	07:24	08:24	AirAsia - Lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control.^[12]
01:55	28 December	07:30	08:30	(Scheduled arrival at Singapore Changi Airport)
01:55	00:30	07:30	08:30	(Scheduled arrival at Singapore Changi Airport)

Aircraft

The aircraft is an Airbus A320-216,^[a] with serial number 3648, registered as PK-AXC. It first flew on 25 September 2008, and was newly delivered to AirAsia on 15 October 2008. It had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.^[12] The aircraft is powered by two CFM International CFM56-5B6 engines and is configured to carry 186 passengers.^[13]

Passengers and crew

AirAsia released the nationalities of the 162 passengers and crew which included 145 adults, 16 children and 1 infant:^[14]^[12]

Nationality	No.
Indonesia	156
South Korea	3
France	1
Malaysia	1
Singapore	1

Crew

The pilots aboard the flight were Captain Iriyanto, who had a total of 6,100 flying hours, First Officer Remi Emmanuel Plesel, who had a total of 2,275 flying hours, and Flight Engineer Saiful Rakhmad.^[15] The cabin crew consisted of four flight attendants.^[12]

Search and rescue effort

Search and rescue operations have been ongoing under the guidance of the Civil Aviation Authority of Indonesia.^[12]^[16]
Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency deployed seven ships and two helicopters to search the shores of Belitung and Kalimantan.^[17] The Indonesian Navy and the provincial Indonesian National Police Air and Water Unit have also each sent out search and rescue teams.^[18] In addition, an Indonesian Air Force Boeing 737 reconnaissance aircraft was dispatched to the last known location of the airliner.^[19]
Singapore's Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and supported by various agencies, including the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), has also deployed a C-130 Hercules aircraft to aid in the search and rescue mission. ^[20]
Malaysia's government has also set up a rescue coordination center at Subang and has deployed assets to aid with the search and rescue mission.^[21]

Response

Indonesia AirAsia, following the disappearance, changed its website and social media branding to greyscale images, in mourning for the presumed deaths of the passengers.^[22]^[23] An emergency call center has also been established by the airline, for family or friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft.^[12]
An emergency information center has been set up at Juanda International Airport, providing hourly updates and lodging for relatives.^[24]
Immediately following the incident, unconfirmed and speculative early reports suggested that the flight had crashed off the island of Belitung in Indonesia.^[25]^[26]^[27]
Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong expressed his condolences over the missing AirAsia flight via Twitter: "Saddened to hear of missing flight #QZ8501. My thoughts are with the passengers and their families. - LHL."^[28] Prime Minister Lee also called President Joko Widodo and offered help in the search as stated in another tweet.