Live: Latest Updates on Missing AirAsia flight
31 December
2.20 pm (IST): First two coffins containing QZ8501 victims' bodies have been brought to Lanudal Airbase, Surabaya.
11.12 am (IST) A seventh body has been found at the search site. In total, the bodies of four men and three women have been recovered so far. One of the bodies reportedly was wearing a life-jacket.
8.40 am (IST): Indonesian search and rescue agency claims that it has spotted something that appears to be the body of an aircraft lying upside down on the ocean floor in 24-30 metres of water. The sonar images are being analysed.
7.00 am (IST): Six bodies -- three men and three women -- have been recovered, including that of a flight attendant still wearing her uniform. The day four of the search looking for debris and the bodies of the 162 passengers of the crashed AirAsia plan will also focus on teams attempting to locate the 'Black Box.'
30 December
6.30 pm (IST): Journalists barred from waiting area for the families of the crashed AirAsia passengers. Ground staff escorted over 200 journalists out,after TV channel showed image of a dead passenger floating in the sea.
5.45 pm (IST): Indonesian Search and Rescue agency says only three bodies have been recovered from the QZ8501 debris site,not 40 as was reported earlier. The bodies are of two females and one male. Earlier, the Indonesian navy had said that it had found 40 bodies,which has been put on an Indonesian warship Bung Tomo.
5.35 pm (IST): Indonesian President Joko Widodo: "To all the families of the passengers and crew, be strong. We are now focused on the recovery of the passengers and crew."
5.25 pm (IST): Chief of Indonesian Search and Rescue agency says despite the bad weather, efforts are on to find the largest piece of the jet tonight. Ships at the at the debris site have to tackle waves of up to 3 metres.
5.00 pm (IST): AirAsia confirms debris found today in the Karimata Strait is from flight QZ8501, via statement on Facebook.
3.18 pm (IST): More than 40 bodies have been retrieved from the area where the AirAsia plane crashed, the Indonesian navy said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo is expected to reach Surabaya shortly, where families of victims have been staying for two days.
1.51 pm (IST): AirAsia QZ8501 'Shadow' Spotted
A 'shadow' spotted on the seabed is believed to be of the missing AirAsia plane, according to the Indonesian search chief.
1.39 pm (IST): Bodies taken to Indonesian Navy Ship
Indonesian officials said they spotted several bodies floating in waters near where the missing AirAsia flight was last seen.
The bodies were swollen but intact, and have been brought to an Indonesian navy ship, National Search and Rescue Director SB Supriyadi said.
1.29 pm (IST): Indonesian Search and Rescue officials have confirmed that at least one body beleived to be of a victim of the plane crash has been found in the sea.
1.21 pm (IST): Indonesian officials have told local media that 'victims' have been spotted near the site where AirAsia plane disappeared, according to The Associated Press.
12.41 pm (IST): Debris 'from AirAsia plane': Indonesian civil aviation has said, according to AFP.
12.10 pm (IST): Debris sighted off Kalimantan coast is likely to be from missing AirAsia jet: Indonesian transportation ministry official.
11.15 am (IST): Items resembling an emergency slide, and a plane door have been seen in the search area, Indonesian officials said, according to AFP.
11.00 am (IST): US Warship joins search operations
A United States warship was dispatched to join the search for the missing Air Asia plane on Tuesday.
Singapore's navy vessel RSS Persistence is also set to arrive in the search area with two helicopters for search operations.
10.50 am (IST): AirAsia is set to fly families of passengers on the ill-fated QZ8501 flight to the search area over Java Sea, as per reports. It will take up to 180 relatives and media personnel on board.
9.30 am (IST): The two emergency signals were not from the missing AirAsia flight, Indonesian officials said on Tuesday.
9.04 am (IST): Two small planes are heading to an island within the search zone where fire was spotted, as per reports.
9.00 am (IST): All sightings of suspicious objects have been false alarms so far, Indonesia's Air Vice Marshall said. Even a suspected oil slick in the Java Sea has reportedly turned out to be coral.
8.55 am (IST): Indonesia has widened the air search from seven areas to a 13-area search zone.
29 December
6:20 pm (IST): The second day of the Search and Rescue operations looking for debris of AirAsia flight QZ8501 has concluded on Monday evening with 'no success.'
5:30 pm (IST): The Singapore Armed Forces' (SAR) will be sending in a submarine support and rescue vessel MV Swift Rescue to assist Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency BASARNAS.
4:14 pm (IST): Fishermen who searched for signs of the missing plane for six hours at the sea off Belitung Island returned without any traces of the plane's debris.
Four boats with approximately 15 crew members were combing the waters even as a massive search has been launched to find the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501.
3:36 pm (IST): 'Spotted Object Not from Missing Plane'
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said that the object spotted at sea during the search operation is not from QZ8501, according to AFP.
Earlier, Australian planes had reported seeing objects in the sea within the search zone.
3:30 pm (IST): 'Six planes were around AirAsia QZ8501during incident'
Indonesian Flight Navigation Service, also known as AirNav Indonesia, has said that six planes were flying at the same time and at a similar height as AirAsia flight QZ8501, when it lost contact with air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. local time on Sunday.
"At the same time, six planes were around the missing AirAsia flight," AirNav president director Bambang Cahyono said during a press conference at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on Monday, according to The Jakarta Post.
Among the six were planes that belonged to Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air and Emirates, he said.
2.50 pm (IST): 30 ships, 15 aircrafts are searching for missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, the Indonesian Vice President has said.
2.22 pm (IST): Weather suitable for search operations till 31 December, will deteriorate after that
Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has hinted that the search for the missing AirAsia plane has stronger potential till 31 December due to the 'perfect weather', though weather conditions will deteriorate after that.
"December 30 and 31 will have perfect weather for the search and rescue teams to try and locate the missing aircraft," the BMKG head said on Monday, according to The Jakarta Post.
He, however, said that the weather will turn quite severe in the Bangka Belitung area on 2 and 3 January 2015, with a chance of torrential downpours in the Karimata strait between Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan.
1.30 pm (IST): Indonesian Air Force has also said that it spotted 'something' in the waters of the search area for the missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501.
1.25 pm (IST): Australian planes have reportedly spotted objects in the sea in the search area, sparking speculations if they belong to the missing AirAsia flight.
Australian Orion aircraft detected suspicious objects near Nangka island, about 700 miles (1,120 kilometers) from the location where the plane lost contact.
12.38 pm (IST): Indonesia has reportedly accepted Singapore's offer of specialists and underwater detectors to assist in locating the missing AirAsia plane, according to Channel News Asia.
The chief of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency has said that the plane was likely to be at the bottom of the sea, AFP reported on Monday.
"Based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea, the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," Bambang Soelistyo said at a press conference.
Soelistyo also said that Indonesia did not have "the tools", to retrieve the plane from the bottom of the sea and said that the country has sought help from the US, UK and France for the operations.
"Due to the lack of technology that we have, I have coordinated with our foreign minister so we will borrow from other countries which have offered. They are the UK, France and US," he said.
28 December
The experts are preparing for the worst as it has been over five hours since the Air Asia Airbus A320 flight QZ8501 travelling from Surabaya Indonesia to Singapore, has 'disappeared.'
Reports claim that the Air Traffic Control lost contact with the aircraft after it deviated course to avoid bad weather. The flight from Surabaya Indonesia to Singapore is a two-hour flight, however the air route was experiencing 'severe bad weather' with heavy thunderstorms.
The flight was due to land in Singapore at 8:30am local time (00:30 GMT) and was listed as delayed.
AirAsia has confirmed in a statement that the plane has gone missing.
The aircraft involved is an Airbus A320-216 registered as PK-AXC.
Live: Latest Updates on Missing AirAsia flight
03.25 am PST: Indonesian Officials: The SAR teams will resume search operations in the three areas where QZ8501 was suspected to have lost contact. Before calling off the search, three planes carried out a two-hour-long search in the areas, but with no success. The search will be resumed in the early morning as soon as some visibility is restored.
03.04 am PST: AirAsia has issued a correction to the nationality breakdown of passengers and crew aboard. A UK national has been added to the list, while the French national is part of the airline crew.
Nationalities of the missing passengers - 1 Singapore, 1 Malaysia, 3 South Korea, 1 United Kingdom, 149 Indonesia; Nationalities of crew: 1 France, 6 Indonesia
03.02 am PST: Reports claim the Singaporean on board the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 is a two-year-old girl. She was travelling with her father, a British national. Her mother, who is Singaporean, had travelled back to Singapore earlier from Surabaya with the child's older sibling.
03.00 am PST: QZ8501 search operations have been suspended, will resume from early morning - Navy Officials
02.35 am PST: Arrangements for stay and travel to Indonesia have been arranged for the QZ8501 next-of-kin, say Changi Airport officials.
02.25 am PST: CONFIRMED - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has spoken to Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Prime Minister Abbott said that "Australia would do whatever we humanly could to assist." (Via @TonyAbbottMHR)
02.10 am PST: Local reports in Indonesia claim that Australia is sending three RAAF P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft to search the missing AirAsia plane.
02.05 am PST: A C-130 Hercules belonging to the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has left Paya Lebar Air Base, Singapore, to assist in the QZ8501 search near Java Sea.
02.00 am PST: Indonesian Navy official - No wreckage of #QZ5801 found; poor weather conditions; visibility between 5-10km.
01.55 am PST- SAR operations may have to be called back soon as only about an hour of daylight is left in the search area. (Flightradar24 @flightradar24)
01.50 am PST - AirAsia flight AK6242 from Penang to Langkawi turns back due to technical difficulties. (via @NST_Online)
01.30 am PST: UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office says the next of kin of the Briton on board the missing flight QZ8501 have been informed (via Sky News Newsdesk @SkyNewsBreak).
01.00 am PST: Airbus releases official statement on AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501.
12.50 am PST: Malaysian transportation minister says reports of debris found from QZ8501 are yet to be verified.
12.35 am PST: UK Foreign Office investigating reports of British national aboard the missing AirAsia Flight QZ8504, reports UK Mirror.
12.20 am PST: Seven search ships to be deployed from Jakarta to comb the Belitung waters, reports local daily Merdeka.
12.10 am PST: An Indonesian rescue helicopter was dispatched from Jakarta at about 3 pm local time, and the expected time of travel to the site is 3 hours.
12.08 am PST: Tatang Zaenadi, search and rescue agency head of ops, said two Hercules aircraft had been cleared to fly from Singapore to the possible crash location of the plane.
12.06 am PST: Passengers' relatives told airport officials in Surabaya that they had been trying the mobile phones of their loved ones, but without success. (via Michael Bachelard @mbachelard)
12.04 am PST: Indonesian Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said that the plane was believed to be "close to the coastline'' between Belitung Island east of Sumatra and Pontianak, on Borneo Island. They are separated by the Karimata Strait. (via WSJ)
12.02 am PST: Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai says the government has set up a rescue coordination centre at Subang and is deploying assets now to aid the Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency (SAR). Malayasia is also coordinating with the search efforts led by Indonesia. (via Twitter @liowtionglai)
12.00 am PST: Indian Navy on standby with three warships and P-8I aircraft for assisting the search party looking for the missing AirAsia plane. Unconfirmed. (Via Twitter)
11.59 pm PST: Heartbreaking images of Indonesian families grieving for their missing relatives on the AirAsia flight.
11.57 pm PST: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in his Twitter message has conveyed his support to the families of the victims.
Mohd Najib Tun Razak @NajibRazak said: "Very sad to hear that AirAsia Indonesia QZ8501 is missing. My thoughts are with the families. Malaysia stands ready to help."
11.25 pm PST: The names of the pilot and crew members of the Malaysian AirAsia flight revealed: Pilot - Iriyanto (Indonesian) and First Officer Remi Emmanuel Plesel (French). Cabin crew members - Wanti Setiawati, Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar Desano and Wismoyo Ari Prambudi. Engineer - Saiful Rakhmad
11.10 pm PST: Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai is at the AirAsia HQ with CEO Tony Fernandes (via @ChannelNewsAsia).
10.40 pm PST: Singapore Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen has spoken to his Indonesian counterpart Ryamizard Ryacudu. Dr Ng said Singapore Armed Forces' planes and ships are on standby and ready to offer their assistance. (Via Facebook)
10.30 pm PST: Passengers on other flights arriving at Changi Airport, Singapore, from Surabaya claim there was "nothing unusual" about weather conditions at time of departure. "It was slightly cloudy but there were no delays in the aircraft taking off," a Singapore Airlines passenger told a local news agency.
10.15 pm PST: AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore may have crashed at the location 03.22.46 South and 108.50.07 East in waters around 145 kilometers from Belitung, a National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) official has said. The Airbus A320 reportedly circled over the sea near Belitung to avoid a storm before it experienced severe turbulence and crashed into the ocean. AirAsia is yet to confirm the details. (Via Jakarta Post)
10.05 pm PST: Indonesian authorities along with AirAsia officials are holding a press conference in Surabaya.(via @W7VOA)
10.00 pm PST: Relatives of the passengers of the missing plane have started arriving at Singapore's Changi airport,where the authorities are expected to hold a press conference.
9.55 pm PST: The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has kept two C 130 aircrafts to assist the Indonesian authorities in the search and rescue operations. (@ChannelNewsAsia)
9.50 pm PST: Locals reports claim search and rescue boats are patrolling the water near Belitung Island, looking for possible plane wreckage from the missing flight QZ8501.
9.45 pm PST: Indonesia Air Transportation direction official claims flight QZ8501 disappeared from radar a minute after losing contact with air traffic control.
9.40 pm PST: Airplane wreckage has reportedly been found east of Belitung Island in Indonesia. AirAsia however has not confirmed the report.
9:29 pm PST: AirAsia in its latest statement releases the details of passengers and the pilot:
AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 (Surabaya LT) this morning. The flight took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 0535hours.
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer on board.
The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours
There were 155 passengers on board, with 138 adults, 16 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots and 5 cabin crew.
Nationalities of passengers and crew onboard are as below:
1 Singapore
1 Malaysia
3 South Korean
157 Indonesia
At this time, search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of The Indonesia of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). AirAsia Indonesia is cooperating fully and assisting the investigation in every possible way.
The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and 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 (ATC).
The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.
9:15 pm PST: The Indonesia Air Transportation direction claims that the pilot of QZ8501 requested a "left track" to avoid clouds and also wanted to climb to 38,000 feet.
9.15 pm PST: Passenger manifest: 155 passengers checked in for AirAsia Flight #QZ8501; 23 passengers were listed as "no shows." (@MatthewKeysLive)
8:50 pm PST: An Indonesian portal claims that the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 has crashed in the waters off East Belitung, off the east coast of Sumatra. (Via Banka Pos)
8:22 pm PST: The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) says 'search and rescue operations' on:
28 December 2014, 11:30am Local Time:- An Indonesia AirAsia aircraft, QZ8501, scheduled to arrive at 0830 hours local time from Surabaya, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 0724 hours local time today. Singapore air traffic control was informed of this loss of contact at 0754 hours by Jakarta air traffic control. The aircraft was in the Indonesian Flight Information Region (FIR) when contact was lost, more than 200 nm southeast of the Singapore-Jakarta FIR boundary.
Search and rescue operations have been activated by the Indonesian authorities from the Pangkal Pinang Search and Rescue office.
The Singapore 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) and the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), has also been activated and has offered help to the Indonesian authorities. Two C130s are already on stand-by for this purpose. We remain ready to provide any assistance to support the search and rescue effort.
The CAAS and Changi Airport Group (CAG) Crisis Management Centres have already been activated. We are working with the airline's crisis management team.
A waiting area, and all necessary facilities and support have been set up for relatives and friends of the affected passengers at Changi Airport Terminal 2 (Level 3).
Further updates will be provided once more information is available.
8:05 pm PST: Preparing for the worst, AirAsia has updated its official Twitter account to have no cover photo and has changed its user icon to a black and white from red.
7:45 pm PST: Air Asia has released the following statement via Facebook:
AirAsia Indonesia 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.
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC.
At this time, search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service.
AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre that is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft. The number is: +622129850801.
7:42 pm PST: Total people on board the missing plane - 162 which includes 138 adults, 16 minors,1 infant and 7 crew members including an engineer.
7:38pm PST: The missing aircraft reportedly requested the air traffic control for a descend due to 'turbulence.'
7:34pm PST: Hadi Mustofa of the Indonesian Transport Ministry stated that flight QZ8501 lost contact with Jakarta at 6:17am local (23:17 GMT). The aircraft was reported to have requested an "unusual" route.
Seventh body said to have been found at the search site, reports Kompas TV. The bodies of four men and three women have been recovered so far, reports AP-Dow Jones. One of the bodies reportedly was wearing a life-jacket.
