Flight QZ8501: Did AirAsia jet land safely in sea before sinking in storm?
Experts say the absence of any crash transmission means the experienced former airforce pilot Captain Irianto may have executed the perfect emergency landing
Disappearance: AirAsia Captain Irianto, pilot of missing flight QZ8501
The pilot of crashed AirAsia flight QZ8501 may have pulled off the perfect emergency water landing before being the plane was overcome by high seas and sank.
While the hunt is on for the black boxes, several aviation experts believe the absence of any usual crash transmission data means the plane could have touched down safely with all 162 people on board.
After leaving Indonesia early on Sunday, the Airbus A320-200 disappeared over the Java Sea during a storm but the emergency transmissions made when planes crash or are submerged in the sea were never emitted.
So flight experts now believe it's entirely possible that experienced former airforce pilot Captain Irianto may have safely landed the plane on water - before it was overcome by high waves and fell to the bottom of the sea.
Dudi Sudibyo, a senior editor of aviation magazine Angkasa, said: "The emergency locator transmitter (ELT) would work on impact, be that land, sea or the sides of a mountain, and my analysis is it didn't work because there was no major impact during landing."
"The pilot managed to land it on the sea's surface."
Captain Irianto was cruising at a height of 32,000 feet when he requested permission to change course to avoid storms.
But although air traffic controllers gave him permission, he had to wait because of heavy air traffic and the plane vanished from radar screens minutes later.
While a mass search is still underway for the black boxes, some experts believe it may have stalled because it climbed to steeply or was travelling too slowly - yet it remains a mystery why there was no distress signal from the pilot.
More than 40 bodies have since been found in the Java Sea, with some reports suggesting passengers were wearing lifejackets and holding hands.
Two of the first pieces of debris found were an emergency exit door and an inflatable slide, which could suggest the first passengers may have started to evacuate the plane.
Former air force commander Chappy Hakim told AFP: "The conclusions I have come to so far are that the plane did not blow up mid-air, and it did not suffer an impact when it hit a surface, because if it did so then the bodies would not be intact."
A shadow of the plane believed to have been spotted on the seabed also shows the plane may have been largely intact.
Former Indonesia transport minister Jusman Syafii Djamal believes the discovery of the exit door means "someone had opened it", reports Channel News Asia.
The full cause of the crash will remain unclear until search and rescue workers recover the black boxes.
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/flight-qz8501-airasia-jet-land-4902658
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