New developments are coming to light regarding the Indonesia AirAsia flight 8501 plane crash that occurred on December 28, 2014. The search has now been called off, but officials are saying that the rescue mission, although not 100% effective, was commendable.
The flight, an Airbus A320-216, had crashed into the Java Sea as a result of bad weather and/or in part to the faulty operations of the co-pilot. The unfortunate tragedy killed 155 people and 7 crew members. Of that number, 106 bodies were found, and 56 still remain unaccounted for. In February, only 72 bodies were recovered.
The flight started off well, cruising at around 32,000 feet. About 11:12 p.m. UTC, the pilot had requested permission to fly at a higher elevation of 38,000 feet in an attempt to circumvent the bad weather. The plane climbed steeply in about 30 seconds to the altitude of 37,400 feet, while experiencing severe turbulence. Experts say that the plane was going a speed rate of nearly double what it should be in terms of aviation.
Back in February, Indonesian transportation minister, Ignasius Jonan, told CNN that the AirAsia jet stalled after its violent ascent. After stalling, the plane descended to below 24,000 feet out of radar detection.
As of Tuesday night, the rescue efforts have been officially called off, as stated by the Indonesian rescue team. The families involved were naturally very distraught by the termination of the rescue efforts, but reportedly understood that the efforts could not go on continuously. CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, said in a report last week that he was satisfied with the search operation. He stated, “We have been successful… To get more than 50% is considered a huge success.”
The contents of the plane’s two black boxes were also reported, and were said to have audio records of the crew’s screams, and sounds of the two pilots drowning. The pilot’s last message recorded was the request to fly above the storm. The co-pilot, who was much less experienced, was thought to be at the controls. Co-pilot Plesel, age 46, had only around 2275 hours flying time compared to the pilot, Irianto, who was a pilot for the Indonesian Air Force, before becoming a commercial pilot, clocking in around 6,100 hours on AirAsia and more than 20,000 hours total. At the moment, investigators and analysts are still trying to figure out why Flight 8501 went down in the storm, when other similar aircraft had made it though.
