AirAsia QZ8501 - Another missing flight!

[nanana]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/mobile/a ... 53098.html

Is this some kind of joke?!!

[zzm9980]

Nope, quite sad...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30614627

"He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact."

I hope this is wrong and the incident doesn't turn into another MH370 media circus.

[Pal]

An AirAsia Indonesia airliner flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board has lost contact with air traffic control.

Flight QZ8501 went missing at 07:24 (23:24 GMT), AirAsia tweeted.

The plane, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared midway into the flight of more than two hours and no distress call was issued.

Indonesian military planes and aircraft from Singapore are searching an area of the Java Sea.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30614627

Hope it does not end like the earlier MH17 and MH370

[rajagainstthemachine]

Poor Malaysia, horrible horrible year for them, 3 plane accidents, is this some sort of conspiracy?
I hope once again that the passengers and crew managed are safe.

[nakatago]

For what it's worth, this plane asked permission to deviate from its flight plan due to bad weather before losing contact. That hopefully eliminates wild speculation.

[x9200]

Unless it was a part of the ploy.

Kidding (at this point) but found it odd for a plain to be taken down from 30-38k feet by a bad weather alone and with the pilots not able to send any further messages.

[PNGMK]

Unless it was a part of the ploy.

Kidding (at this point) but found it odd for a plain to be taken down from 30-38k feet by a bad weather alone and with the pilots not able to send any further messages.

I thought the PIC asked to climb to 38k feet? I wonder if icing is a possibility - even in the tropics?

[Brah]

SE may know a better site than these, but I can't remember it at the moment:

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... n/6267475/

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/budget-a ... -a-13.html

Seems like there were 10 lucky people.

[zzm9980]

Seems like there were 10 lucky people.

One of those threads said that 23 people were no-shows, while the 10 of them were all the same family.

The lone Brit and Singaporean were a father and 2yr old daughter. The Singaporean mother and elder sibling already returned on a different flight.

[x9200]

More than 6 flights a day, average, since it began service in 2008. That's pretty shocking level of utilization - it translates to ~13000 cycles of (de)compression.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asi ... 55778.html

[ecureilx]

A320s were built and certified for 48000 cycles if I recall correctly.

[x9200]

Well could be as Airbus even did not comment on this only saying it was a hardworking machine, but I would never expect something like this is even possible from the logistic POV.
Besides, it may be some differences to the material fatigue depending whether it happens over longer or shorter periods of time.

[Pal]

Bomohs offer expertise in QZ8501 hunt but Indonesia declines

Bomohs or witch doctors have offered their assistance in the hunt for missing Flight QZ8501, claiming that they have managed to track down the Indonesia AirAsia plane’s location in the “supernatural” waters of Belitung:
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malay ... noredirect


Image credit: http://newnation.sg/2014/03/kl-bomohs-b ... -to-spore/

[ecureilx]

Well could be as Airbus even did not comment on this only saying it was a hardworking machine, but I would never expect something like this is even possible from the logistic POV.
Besides, it may be some differences to the material fatigue depending whether it happens over longer or shorter periods of time.

not into the details, but the 320 series was built for shorter/high cycle life span

And material fatigue is nowadays extremely rare, as the C and D checks are more detailed now

plus the plastic bus has proven to have been extremely reliable.

As for this plane, I suspect it was a repeat of AF447, as if it has disintegrated the ELTs on surface, the ELTs would have been activated !

[the lynx]

Just returned from a trip within the region using Jetstar. I flew about 4 hours after that missing flight was reported. I tell you, the weather is not to be messed with. My plane had serious turbulence on my way to Singapore due to heavy clouds. There were times I clenched on my seat arm rests because the shaking was terrifying.