Faudzil @ Ajak
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31 December 2014
AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE CRASH - Pilot describes seeing victims 'holding hands' in the water
AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash: Pilot describes seeing victims 'holding hands' in the water
Tuesday 30 December 2014
30 December 2014
AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE CRASH - All eyes on Fernandes in QZ8501 crisis, says WSJ
All eyes on Fernandes in QZ8501 crisis, says WSJ
Published: December 30, 2014 12:19 PM
AirAsia CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes speaks at a news conference at the
Juanda International Airport, Surabaya. — Reuters pic
Juanda International Airport, Surabaya. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 ― Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’ response to the loss of Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 will determine the direction of the regional low-cost carrier’s business in days to come, the Wall Street Journal has said.
The business daily said Fernandes' hands-on approach in dealing with the disappearance of Flight QZ8501 has so far staved off the criticism faced by Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government in their handling of the loss of flight MH370 in March this year, but noted that there is still much to be done.
It said the key challenge for the budget airline is to “head off any suggestion” that the disappearance of the Airbus A320 jetliner yesterday morning was in any way linked its low-cost business model.
AirAsia will also need to reassure investors, after its shares fell 12 per cent on opening on Bursa Malaysia on the first day of trading since the accident before paring their losses and closing at 8.5 per cent lower, WSJ added.
The New York-based daily noted that Fernandes’ prominence in the current crisis has parallels to what was done in 1982 by Johnson & Johnson chief executive James Burke, who successfully managed a crisis involving cyanide-tainted capsules of Tylenol that killed seven people in the US.
During that crisis, Burke personally appeared in television advertisements and news conferences to explain the company's decision to recall and destroy over 30 million capsules of the drug, and the company also introduced tamper-resistant packaging.
Analysts quoted by the WSJ noted that the ubiquity of Fernandes' personal brand on AirAsia means that he would play a major role in how the airline will emerge from this crisis.
“Tony is AirAsia, and AirAsia is Tony,” aviation analyst Shukor Yusof with Malaysia-based Endau Analytics was quoted as saying.
Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501 disappeared from Jakarta’s radar at 6.18am local time Sunday amid stormy weather enroute to Singapore from Surabaya.
On board the Airbus A320 jet were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one Malaysian, one Singaporean, one Frenchman and one Briton, comprising 155 passengers and seven crew members.
Source: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/money/article/all-eyes-on-fernandes-in-qz8501-crisis-says-wsj
AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE CRASH - Bodies, debris from missing AirAsia plane pulled from sea off Indonesia
Bodies, debris from missing AirAsia plane pulled from sea off Indonesia
JAKARTA
A family member of passengers onboard missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 react at a waiting area in Juanda International Airport, Surabaya December 30, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/BEAWIHARTA
.jpg)
Family members of passengers onboard missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 cry at a waiting area in Juanda International Airport, Surabaya December 30, 2014.
.jpg)
A search and rescue worker prepares to load body bags onto a flight to Kalimantan in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka December 30, 2014.
(Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers searching for a missing AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday as relatives of those on board broke down in tears on hearing the news.
Indonesia AirAsia's Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Indonesia's search and rescue agency confirmed the debris was from the plane. The agency's chief, Soelistyo, said "more than one" body had been recovered.
The plane has yet to be found and there was no word on the possibility of any survivors.
Pictures of floating bodies were broadcast on television and relatives of the missing gathered at a crisis center in Surabaya wept with heads in their hands. Several people collapsed in grief and were helped away, a Reuters reporter said.
"You have to be strong," the mayor of Surabaya, Tri Rismaharini, said as she comforted relatives.
"They are not ours, they belong to God."
A navy spokesman said a plane door, oxygen tanks and one body had been recovered and taken away by helicopter for tests.
AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes, who has been in Indonesia since the plane went missing, said he was rushing back to Surabaya.
"Whatever we can do at AirAsia we will be doing," he said on Twitter.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Koreaand the United States had been involved in the search of up to 10,000 square nautical miles.
The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic, officials said.
Flight QZ8501 was traveling at 32,000 feet (9,753 meters) and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet, officials said earlier.
Pilots and aviation experts said thunderstorms, and requests to gain altitude to avoid them, were not unusual in that area.
The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, the airline said.
Online discussion among pilots has centered on unconfirmed secondary radar data from Malaysia that suggested the aircraft was climbing at a speed of 353 knots, about 100 knots too slow, and that it might have stalled.
CLUES WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
The plane, whose engines were made by CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran of France, lacked real-time engine diagnostics or monitoring, a GE spokesman said.
Such systems are mainly used on long-haul flights and can provide clues to airlines and investigators when things go wrong.
Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the country's aviation industry and spooked travelers across the region.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline's Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.
The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, the airline said. The aircraft had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus.
U.S. law enforcement and security officials said passenger and crew lists were being examined but nothing significant had turned up and the incident was regarded as an unexplained accident.
Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia.
The AirAsia group, including affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India, had not suffered a crash since its Malaysian budget operations began in 2002.
India is waiting to know what went wrong with the missing plane and will investigate if AirAsia India is following all safety procedures, a senior Indian aviation ministry official told Reuters. AirAsia India, a joint venture of the Malaysian carrier, started flying this year and is expanding operations.
The plane's disappearance comes at a sensitive time for Indonesia's aviation authorities, as they strive to improve the country's safety reputation to match its status as one of the airline industry's fastest growing markets.
(Additional reporting by Fergus Jensen, Gayatri Suroyo, Charlotte Greenfield, Adriana Nina Kusuma, Wilda Asmarini, Fransiska Nangoy, Cindy Silviana, Kanupriya Kapoor, Michael Taylor, Nilufar Rizki and Siva Govindasamy in JAKARTA, Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah and Praveen Menon in KUALA LUMPUR, Saeed Azhar, Rujun Shen and Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE, Jane Wardell in SYDNEY, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, Tim Hepher in PARIS and Mark Hosenball, David Brunnstrom and Lesley Wroughton in WASHINGTON, Aditi Shah in NEW DELHI; Writing by Dean Yates and Robert Birsel; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Macfie)
earch and rescue workers prepare to load body bags onto a flight to Kalimantan in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka December 30, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/DARREN WHITESIDE.jpg)
An Indonesian Navy diver prepares to load his gear onto a flight to Kalimantan in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka December 30, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/DARREN WHITESIDE
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/30/us-indonesia-airplane-idUSKBN0K601C20141230
AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE CRASH - Debris, bodies found
Missing AirAsia jet: Debris, bodies found
CNBC.com staff | @CNBC
Debris, luggage, life vests and bodies have been found in the search for AirAsia flight QZ8501, which went missing early on Sunday, according to various media reports.
Indonesian officials confirmed that the debris, which was located close to the island of Borneo near the last captured radar message from the missing jet, were from the plane. The country's search and rescue agency has confirmed with NBC that at least six corpses have been found, three of which have been recovered.
The news was initially reported by the AFP news agency, which has also stated that a "shadow" resembling an plane had been spotted on the seabed in the same area. Indonesian television has shown footage of the recovery attempts by rescue teams and has broadcast images of objects floating in the sea.
EBOLA NEWS - Ebola case confirmed in Glasgow hospital
29 December 2014 Last updated at 22:02
Ebola case confirmed in Glasgow hospital
The woman is being treated in isolation at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow
A healthcare worker who has just returned from West Africa has been diagnosed with Ebola and is being treated in hospital in Glasgow.
The woman, who arrived from Sierra Leone on Sunday night, is in isolation at Glasgow's Gartnavel Hospital.
All possible contacts with the case are being investigated, including on flights to Scotland via Heathrow.
UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt confirmed that the woman would be taken to a specialist unit in London.
She will be flown from Glasgow and taken to the Royal Free Hospital in north London "as soon as we possibly can," Mr Hunt said.
The hospital has a specialist isolation unit and treated William Pooley, the British nurse who contracted and recovered from Ebola.
Low risk
Mr Hunt said the government was doing "absolutely everything it needs to be" to keep the UK safe.
He insisted NHS processes "worked well" after the woman starting exhibiting symptoms.
The health secretary added: "We are also reviewing our procedures and protocols for all the other NHS workers who are working at the moment in Sierra Leone."
Nicola Sturgeon: Ebola risk 'extremely low'
Charity Save the Children confirmed the woman was an NHS health worker who was working with them at the Ebola Treatment Centre in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone.
The organisation's humanitarian director, Michael von Bertele, said: "Save the Children is working closely with the UK government, Scottish government and Public Health England to look into the circumstances surrounding the case."
At a news conference in Glasgow, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon stressed that the risk to the general public was very low.
She added that the patient was thought to have had contact with only one other person since arriving in the city, but that all passengers on the flights the woman took will be traced.
Ms Sturgeon said: "Apart from other passengers on the flights and obviously the hospital staff since this patient's admittance to hospital, she, the patient is thought to have had contact with only one other person in Scotland since returning to Scotland last night and that person will also be contacted and given appropriate reassurance."
Helpline
Alisdair MacConachie, of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: "She's being managed in an isolation facility by staff who are comfortable managing patients in such a situation. She herself is quite stable and is not showing any great clinical concern at the minute."
NHS Scotland said infectious diseases procedures had been put into effect at the Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases at Gartnavel.
Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids - such as blood, vomit or faeces - of an infected person.
The patient returned to Scotland from Sierra Leone late on Sunday via Casablanca and London Heathrow, arriving into Glasgow Airport on British Airways flight 1478.
While public health experts have emphasised that the risks are negligible, a telephone helpline has been set up for anyone who was on the BA 1478 Heathrow to Glasgow flight. The number is: 08000 858531
The woman had been admitted to hospital early on Monday morning after feeling unwell and was placed into isolation at 07.50.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-30628349
EBOLA NEWS - WHO says Ebola cases pass 20,000
WHO says Ebola cases pass 20,000 |
More than 20,000 people infected by the deadly virus, World Health Organisation says, as UK confirms case in Glasgow.
Last updated: 30 Dec 2014 01:11
|
More than 20,000 people have been infected by Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since the outbreak of the virus began, the World Health Organisation has said.
The WHO said in a statement on Monday that there have been 20,081 cumulative cases of infection in the three worst hit countries, and more than 7,842 Ebola-related deaths recorded.
The virus is still spreading intensely in Sierra Leone, the organisation said, with 315 new confirmed cases reported in the week to December 21. These included 115 cases in the capital Freetown.
In Guinea, 156 confirmed cases were recorded during the same period, "the highest weekly case incidence reported by the country in this outbreak", it said.
In Liberia, where case incidence has been declining for the past month, 21 cases were reported in the week to December 21.
| Five additional countries - Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Spain and the US - have had imported cases and are included in the global toll. UK case A healthcare worker recently back from Sierra Leone was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday by doctors in Scotland's largest city, the first diagnosis of the deadly virus in Britain during the current outbreak. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the patient was a female health worker who had been working on the "frontline" with Ebola patients, and was currently in a stable condition in hospital. Save the Children later confirmed she was a National Health Service employee working for the charity. The patient returned to Scotland late on Sunday via Casablanca and London Heathrow, arriving at Glasgow Airport at around 11:30pm (2330 GMT), according to a Scottish government press release. Bodily fluids Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting. People caring for the sick or handling the bodies of people infected Ebola are especially exposed. As of December 21 a total of 666 healthcare workers were known to have contracted the virus, and 366 of them had died, according to the WHO. The Ebola epidemic, which claimed its first victim in Guinea exactly a year ago, is likely to last until the end of 2015, according to Peter Piot, a scientist who helped to discover the virus in 1976. No cure or vaccine is currently available for Ebola, with the WHO authorising the use of largely untested treatments in efforts to combat the disease. |
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies
|
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/12/who-ebola-cases-cross-20000-2014122916419809868.html
MISSING AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE - Debris suspected to be from AirAsia jet spotted
Debris suspected to be from AirAsia jet spotted
CNBC.com staff | @CNBC
Kompas TV
Screenshot of Indonesia's Kompas TV showing footage of objects in water on December 30, 2014.
MISSING AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE - Items resembling emergency slide, plane door spotted
Published: Tuesday December 30, 2014 MYT 1:45:00 PM
Updated: Tuesday December 30, 2014 MYT 2:12:18 PM
Missing AirAsia flight: Items resembling emergency slide, plane door spotted
This aerial view taken from an Indonesian search and rescue aircraft over the Java Sea shows floating debris
spotted in the same area as other items being investigated by Indonesian authorities as possible objects
from missing Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 on Dec 30, 2014. - AFP
spotted in the same area as other items being investigated by Indonesian authorities as possible objects
from missing Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 on Dec 30, 2014. - AFP
PANGKALUN BUN: Items resembling an emergency slide, plane door and other objects were spotted during an aerial search for missing Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, Indonesian officials said.
“We spotted about 10 big objects and many more small white-coloured objects which we could not photograph,” Indonesian air force official Agus Dwi Putranto told a press conference on Tuesday.
“The position is 10km (six miles) from the location the plane was last captured by radar,” he said.
He displayed 10 photos of objects resembling a plane door, emergency slide, and a square box-like object.
“It is not really clear ... it could be the wall of the plane or the door of the plane,” he said.
“Let’s pray that those objects are what we are really trying to find,” he said in Pangkalan Bun in Central Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
An AFP photographer on the same flight that spotted the debris said he had seen objects in the sea resembling a life raft, life jackets and long orange tubes.
Flight QZ8501 vanished from the radar screens on Sunday morning over the Java Sea about 40 minutes after taking off from Surabaya to Singapore.
The Airbus A320-200 aircraft had reportedly requested to deviate from its original flight path to avoid thick clouds and rise to a height of 38,000 feet from the initial height of 32,000 feet.
Indonesian air traffic control lost contact with the plane at 6.24am (Western Indonesian time, an hour behind Malaysian time) as it was flying with 155 passengers and seven crew members.
The search is focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, across from Kalimantan. - AFPIndonesian air traffic control lost contact with the plane at 6.24am (Western Indonesian time, an hour behind Malaysian time) as it was flying with 155 passengers and seven crew members.
Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/12/30/AirAsia-items-spotted/
MISSING AIRASIA QZ8501 PLANE - Last words of vanished plane's pilot revealed
Missing AirAsia flight QZ8501: Last words of vanished plane's pilot revealed
Captain Iriyanto is said to have uttered the phrase "request to higher level" as he sought permission from air traffic control to take the aircraft to 38,000 feet
The last words of Flight QZ8501's pilot have been revealed.
Captain Iriyanto is said to have asked Indonesian state navigation operator AirNav for permission to turn left to avoid a storm.
His request was granted and the jet turned left seven miles.
According to AirNav standards and safety director Wisnu Darjono, the captain then asked if he could climb, saying: "Request to higher level."
The air traffic controller responded: "Intended to what level?", to which Iriyanto said he wanted to go to 38,000 feet.
It was the last AirNav heard from the pilot.
Ships and aircraft from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia are scouring the Java Sea for any trace of the AirAsia plane, which disappeared on Saturday with 162 people on board.
Weather conditions were poor in the Java Sea when the aircraft disappeared.
Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief, Bambang Soelistyo, said: "Based on the coordinates 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.
"That's the preliminary suspicion and it can develop based on the evaluation of the result of our search."
The vice-president of Indonesia also said there was a "huge possibility" that missing Flight QZ8501 had been in an accident .
Jusuf Kalla added: "The government is concerned and expresses its deepest condolences to the families of victims."
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-airasia-flight-qz8501-last-4891286#rlabs=2