AirAsia Airbus Flight 8501 Disappeared.
The major news from over this weekend is that on an AirAsia Airbus flight 8501 disappeared from the radar screens. The plane, which had 162 people aboard, flew out of Surabaya, Indonesia and was bound for Singapore on Sunday, December 28th.
Less than 40 minutes into the flight, the pilot radioed air traffic control asking to increase the plane’s altitude due to heavy storms being reported in the area. Then only a few minutes later, the plane lost contact with controllers and disappeared. It has yet to be found.
The former Chairman of the NTSB Deborah Hersman said “So far the information that we’ve heard from the authorities on the ground, is that they asked for clearance to a higher altitude. There wasn’t any distress signal that was sent that’s been reported at this point. But I will tell you for pilots, they have responsibilities, and they are aviate, navigate and communicate, and communication in an emergency is really the last thing they’re focusing on. They’ve got to handle that airplane and make sure that it is their first priority.”
Officials believe that the flight met anything but a grim fate. Indonesia search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said, “Based on the coordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea.”
Southeast Asia Airplane Crashes.
This is the third major airplane incident for Southeast Asia during this year alone. Earlier in the year on March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 went missing soon after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and still remains missing. And then on July 17, a second Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine while on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Aircraft Terrorism.
News reporters are suggesting that for the AirAsia Airbus flight 8501 bad weather paired with a pilot error or a mechanical issue is most likely the reason why the airliner went down. And authorities do not believe a terrorist attack was the cause of the Airbus to have gone missing.
Nowadays with technology being at its height how can it be possible to lose an airplane even in inclement weather? This is a concept that I cannot seem to grasp. Personally, I can’t help but think that terrorists are indeed testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. By hijacking smaller airlines terrorists would be able to use their technological capabilities in the future to potentially hijack major US airliners. It is quite a scary thought, but one that I cannot stop thinking is the reason for the disappearance of this airline.
What you do think about the disappearance of this airplane? Do you think it was simply inclement weather or a terrorist involvement? I would love to hear your opinion. Until next time, I’m Attorney Francine Ward. Find me on my Facebook Law Fan Page, Twitter Law Page, Google+, and LinkedIn.
