AirAsia Indonesia Airbus A320-216 plane crash
Java Sea, Indonesia
Updated on
The AirAsia Indonesia Airbus A320-200 took off from Surabaya, Indonesia, for a passenger flight to Singapore, Singapore. 155 passengers and 7 crewmembers were onboard. The plane disappeared from radar screen while it was enroute at FL320 over the Java Sea. Debris and bodies have been recovered in the Java Sea. All the 162 people onboard were killed.
The aircraft experienced difficult weather conditions with storm cells while it was cruising over the java sea at FL320. The crew requested to deviate left of its airway and to climb to FL380. At that time, the aircraft was observed normally. Due to other traffic the aircraft could not get cleared to FL380 instantly and was cleared to FL340 at first. When the aircraft was radioed with the clearance to climb to FL340, there was no response anymore, but the aircraft was still visible on radar screens (the ADS-B was still emitting). 1 minute later, the aircraft disappeared from radar screen. The last recorded position was about 110 NM East-South-East of Pulau Belitung.
There were seven aircraft passing through the area at that time at flight levels between 290 and 380, neither of them encountered any difficulties.
Debris and bodies of the aircraft have been located two days later, on Dec 30th 2014, in the Java Sea about 110 NM from Pulau Belitung, about 5 NM (8 km) from the last radar position. Bigger debris of what appeared to be the aircraft wreckage have been located 40 Nm (70 km) from the last radar position. Both black boxes (CVR and DFDR) have been founded more than two weeks after the accident, on January 13th 2015.
AirAsia Indonesia did not have a license to fly the Surabaya-to-Singapore route the day the accident occurred. The airline was approved to fly the route four days a week but it did not include Sunday.
AirAsia Indonesia is a subsidiary of the Malaysian-based AirAsia group. The parent company owns almost 49% of the Indonesian operation.
This accident is the 14th worst plane crash since year 2000 in terms of the number of combined onboard and ground fatalities.
