Another flight gone missing. Air Asia QZ8501


James

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Something which has happened way too often this year, another flight has gone missing. :(

 

 

A search and rescue operation is underway after an AirAsia flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people onboard lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday.

Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa said the aircraft, flight number QZ 8501, lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6.17 am local time (10.17am AEDST).

The passengers include 138 adults, 16 children and one baby, and seven crew. Reports say no Australians were onboard.

The plane departed at 5.35am Indonesian time (9.35am AEDST) and was scheduled to arrive at 8.30am Singapore time (10.30am AEDST).

An Indonesian transport official said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact.

In a post on Facebook, AirAsia confirmed the plane was missing.

"AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24hrs this morning," AirAsia said.

"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."

Shortly after the airline announced the plane was missing, it changed changed its Twitter and Facebook profile pictures, removing its red and white logo and replacing it with a grey and white one.

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," the airline said.

"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.

"AirAsia will release further information as soon as it becomes available. Updated information will also be posted on the AirAsia website, www.airasia.com."

 

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/world/airasia-flight-from-indonesia-to-singapore-loses-contact-20141228-12em2h.html

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with an aircraft like that that only has two engines, if one of the engines fails it goes into a tail spin.

 

its either that or they shut both engines off or try a restart of the failed engine, all of which save for the shut both engines off and glide in are extremely dangerious manuevers, especially if the aircraft isnt that high in the air yet.

 

as many have died from aircraft like this, and this is why single engine aircraft are the prefered aircraft of choice in the private aircraft industry, and I bet that is exactly what happened here.

 

and I know of a famous pilot and lover of the P38 Lightning that got killed when he had an engine failure shortly after take off, along with the pilot of the Gotha 229 V2 going in the same way.

 

and if you read about the P38, while its a beautiful aircraft, its also very complex and hard to fly just because of its twin engine design, as noted by the people who flew them over germany, and not the pacific.

 

as they had cold air flight problems with them, in addition to the overly complex controls, hence why the P51 was the prefered allied aircraft over europe.

 

So that issue with doubled engine aircraft, along with not being easy with an aircraft with a low engine output, you know no sudden fightercraft jerky manuvers that will break the lift over the wings are probably the two leading causes of death in the aircraft industry.

 

unless you have enough power, as with enough power you can probably, quite literally, fly a barn door.

 

and if one engine fails, the wisest thing to do is probably to shut both engines off as because of the air resistance you cant quite see what engine has immediately failed.

 

and with limited visibility on a giagantic aircraft like that, I'd bet that was probably the primary cause of the crash.

Edited by Kavinsky
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