AirAsia to let Indonesian agencies lead searching for missing plane

AirAsia Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) Tony Fernandez said on Sunday that the firm would let Indonesian agencies lead the search for its plane QZ8501 which lost contact when flying over the waters around Indonesia's Bangka Belitung islands and would not make any speculation on the missing of the jet.[Special coverage]

Speaking in a press conference held in Indonesia's Surabaya airport of Juanda in the evening, which the plane departed early in the morning for Singapore, Tony Fernandez said that the missing Airbus A320-200 plane was produced in 2008, in good condition as it had undergone maintenance program periodically.

Besides that, the pilot in command of the plane was a very experienced one, he said.

"Now we let the searching efforts to Indonesian agencies. We do not want to make any speculation. Let's find the plane first," Fernandez said in a joint conference televised nationwide, attended by the airport administrator Trikora Harjo, East Java Governor Soekarwo and Ermanto from National Search and Rescue agency (Basarnas).

Fernandez said that should anything bad happen to the plane, the Malaysia-based firm had prepared to fulfill its obligation to the passengers, including insurance compensation.

Fernandez added that it was the first case faced by the firm which is well known for its budget flight service.

Ermanto said that the Basarnas has dispatched seven vessels soon after received lost contact on QZ8501 information. Those vessels were departed from Pangkal Pinang, Jambi, Palembang, Pontianak and Jakarta.

Planes and helicopters from the Air Forces had also being dispatched to search for the missing plane that lost contact on waters between Tanjung Pandan, Bangka Belitung regency and Pontianak, West Kalimantan province.

He added that seven vessels from the Navy were now heading to the location to comb the areas where the plane made last contact with Indonesian Air Traffic Control (ATC). "The searching would be conducted since the sun rises until it goes down," he said.

He added that Singapore and Malaysia had offered assistance to search for the missing plane.

The Airbus A320-200 aircraft with 155 passengers and seven crew members onboard lost contact with the air traffic control soon after taking off from Surabaya in Indonesia's East Java province on early Sunday morning.

According to the passenger manifest document, besides Indonesians, the plane was also boarded by passengers from the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. And the first officer was from France.