AirAsia flight QZ8501 Incident

AirAsia flight QZ8501 had disappeared from air traffic control (ATC) screens over the Java Sea coast off Indonesia on 28 December, as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board.
This flight lost its contact with ATC after the pilot of plane had requested a change of flight plan due to bad weather, but were not allowed to alter course by authorities.
The debris of the missing plane along with floating bodies of some passengers were spotted on 30th December in the Java Sea off Indonesia, close to the area where contact was lost with the aircraft.
About AirAsia flight QZ8501 Incident

• Airbus A320-200 took off from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore.
• It was carrying 155 passengers- 1 British, 1 Malaysian, 1 Singaporean, 3 South Koreans, 149 Indonesians and 7 crew members- 6 Indonesians and a French co-pilot.
• The pilot’s last contact was a request to divert around bad weather.
• The debris of plane along with dead bodies were discover three days after the multinational search and rescue operation involving Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia in the Java Sea.
• The AirAsia plane was delivered in 2008, has flown 13,600 times, completing 23,000 hours, and underwent its last maintenance in November.
• AirAsia also has an excellent safety record and there were no fatal accidents involving its aircraft.

It is the third aviation disaster of 2014 involving South Asian country Malaysia

• First incident was the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in March 2014 which is consider as worst Aviation Disaster killing 239 people on board and still remains unsolved.
• Second incident was attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 by pro-Russian rebels over Ukraine in July 2014.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2014