Families and friends of those onboard the missing AirAsia plane are waiting for further developments of the investigation. Based on the coordinates from the latest contact with the plane, AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 may be under the ocean.
"Based on the co-ordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea, the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," Head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency Bambang Soelistyo told the press.
The Singapore-bound Airbus A320-200 disappeared on Sunday, along with 162 passengers onboard. Search and rescue operations were put in place after the plane was reported missing, but there is still no trace of it at this point. The missing AirAsia plane was last detected on radar at 6:16 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 27.
"We have to stay positive and hope that they could be found soon," Louise Sidharta said. Sidharta's fiancé Alain Oktavianus Siaun was onboard AirAsia Flight QZ 8501. Siaun was travelling with his parents and three brothers. The family was headed for a vacation in Singapore to celebrate Siaun's upcoming wedding.
Most of the passengers onboard came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, and France.
Search and rescue operations were launched in the Java Sea area close to an island off the coast of Sumatra. Some of the rescue ships continued looking for plane even during the night.
The weather last Sunday may be the culprit to what happened to Flight 8501.
"There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds," weather forecaster Sunardi told the Associated Press.
According to Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics weather forecaster Sunardi, there were dense storm clouds in the same area up to 44,000 feet when the plane went missing.
AirAsia Flight QZ 8501 was expected to arrive at Changi Singapore Airport 8:30 a.m. last Sunday. The plane left Surabaya, Indonesia at 5:35 a.m local time. US President Barack Obama has been briefed on the missing flight and has said that they will continue to monitor the situation.
