An AirAsia Airbus A320-200 has gone missing on a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, shortly after the pilots requested to change the flightplan because of weather, the airline said today.The plane, flight QZ8501, which reportedly had 162 people on board, lost contact at 7:24 a.m. local time near Belitung Island, Indonesia, according to a statement from AirAsia. It was scheduled to land in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time.The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan but was requesting deviation due to enroute weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian Air Traffic Control, AirAsia said.According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, the jet was flying at the regular cruising altitude for most jetliners -- 32,000 feet -- when the signal was lost."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," AirAsia said.The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours, according to the airline. The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.The flight manifest for the the Airbus A320-200, with the registration number PK-AXC, released by the Indonesian authorities said there were 155 passengers on board, including one infant and 16 children.Of the pasengers, 157 were Indonesians, three were South Korean, and there was one traveler each from Malaysia and Singapore, according to AirAsia.
Can we attach a floating beacon on these aircraft so we can find them sooner? Would be nice to know if this is terrorism or just some unlucky string of disasters.
From Wiley: If you're hitting them after they drop, that's not defense, that is revenge.
To add to a good idea:Make it solar-powered, so there would be no 30-45 day battery life.Coogan
Im beginning to lose my confidence in the ELB's carried on board aircraft. This one is in a defined place, well travelled, and not a peep from the beacons.
I think there are certain challenges - if the plane sinks to 2000m deep a beacon is pretty well suppressed. Even if it was a buoy it would need a huge reel of very strong cord and the current would still take it miles off position.
Why would it have to stay attached to the aircraft? I would think that as soon as the device starts floating, it would immediately begin bombarding satellites with it's location.If it's possible to triangulate our cell phones location, why not an aircraft? Coogan
