TIMELINE
The search for missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 continues with few clues to go on. Searchers are focusing efforts on an area near the last known coordinates of the plane.
Here is a time line of the events leading up the plane’s disappearance, according to Djoko Murdjatmojo, the acting director general for Air Transportation Affairs in Indonesia:
Sunday (Local time in Indonesia)
5:36 a.m. — AirAsia Flight 8501 takes off from Surabaya International Airport in Indonesia.
6:12 a.m. — Pilot asks air traffic control permission to avoid clouds by turning left and ascending to 38,000 feet.
6:16 a.m. — Flight 8501 is still visible on radar.
6:18 a.m. — The plane disappears from air traffic control’s radar. (AirAsia reports a slightly different time, 6:24 a.m., for when contact with air traffic control was lost).
7:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m. Singapore time) — This is when Flight 8501 was scheduled to land in Singapore.
7:55 a.m. (8:55 a.m. Singapore time) — Flight 8501 is officially announced as “missing.” Its last known position is in the Java Sea, between Belitung and Borneo.
FLIGHT MANIFEST
According to AsiaAir, there were 162 people on board Flight 8501:
Nationalities of passengers:
1 Singapore
1 Malaysia
3 South Korea
1 United Kingdom
149 Indonesia
Nationalities of crew:
1 France
6 Indonesia
There were 23 “no shows.”
MONDAY SEARCH
Authorities are searching the water near Pulau Galang all through Tanjung Pandan and Pulau Balitung. It is a heavily travelled shipping channel with shallow waters. They say they plan to divide what they called a “very broad search area” into four sections of 120 by 240 nautical miles.
Indonesia: 7 ships, 2 helicopters
Singapore: 1 C-130 plane, 2 ships
Malaysia: 3 ships, 3 aircraft
Australia: one patrol plane, an AP-3C Orion