"We are conducting search operations in the east off Belitung Island, in accordance with the last contact made by the aircraft," Basarnas` Operations Director Air Commodore S.B. Supriyadi said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) is focusing its search efforts on East Belitung waters to find the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 on Monday, the second day of the search and rescue operations.
"We are conducting search operations in the east off Belitung Island, in accordance with the last contact made by the aircraft," Basarnas Operations Director Air Commodore S.B. Supriyadi noted here on Monday.
Basarnas will conduct combing operations in the waters off east Belitung Island to the southeast.
"Later, we will also comb the coastal areas of West Kalimantan," he added.
The AirAsia aircraft, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members, took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, at 5:36 a.m. local time, on Sunday, and lost contact with Jakartas air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. local time. The plane was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time, Sunday.
It lost contact after the pilot sought permission to climb higher in a bid to avoid bad weather over the sea area between Bangka Belitung (Sumatra) and West Kalimantan.
At the time, bad weather was prevailing over Belitung, and the aircraft had been flying at 32 thousand feet before it requested permission to fly at 38 thousand feet to avoid clouds.
Based on the data received from the Angkasa Pura I airport management company, the plane has two pilots - Captain Iriyanto and First Officer (FO) Remi Emmanuel Plesel, four cabin crew members - Wanti Setiawati, Khairunnisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar Desano, and Wismoyo Ari Prambudi, along with a technician, Saiful Rakhmad.
According to AirAsia Indonesia, seven foreigners are among the passengers of the missing plane.
The foreign nationals comprise three Koreans, a Singaporean, a British, a Malaysian, and a First Officer (FO) from France.
"While 155 others, including crew members, are Indonesian nationals," she stated.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
