AirAsia QZ8501: Smoke spotted in search for missing plane

Indonesian officials say they are sending teams to
investigate reports of smoke on an island in the area
where AirAsia flight QZ8501 has gone missing.
The multinational search for the plane has
entered a third day, with the operation area now
widened to cover 13 zones over land and sea.
The Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people from
Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, disappeared
on Sunday.
The pilot's last contact was a request to divert
around bad weather.
Indonesian officials say air traffic control had
approved one request, to veer left, then gave
clearance to a second request for permission to
climb two to three minutes later.
No reply was received and the plane then
disappeared from radar. No trace has yet been
found.

Countries around the region as well as the US,
France and Australia have joined the search over
the Java sea.
On Tuesday, the head of Indonesia's search and
rescue officials in Banka Belitung province told
the BBC they were deploying teams to investigate
reports of "billowing smoke" on Long Island, just
south of Belitung island, inside the search zone.
Andriandi said the smoke was spotted on Monday by
a Chinese television crew, about 29 miles from
Manggar in East Belitung.
"There is a possibility that it might be from the
missing AirAsia plane but we are still doing
further verification," he said.
Experts have cautioned the smoke could be
unrelated to the plane. Reports of a possible oil
slick spotted in the seas off Belitung island on
Monday turned out to be reefs just below the
surface.
Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia's
search-and-rescue agency, also said on Tuesday
that officials would be speaking to two fishermen
who had reported hearing a loud bang on Sunday.
But he said no signal had been detected from the
plane yet. On Monday, he had said he suspected the
aircraft was at the bottom of the sea.
US destroyer en route
On board the plane were 137 adult passengers, 17
children and one infant, along with two pilots
and five crew.
Most were Indonesian but the passengers included
one UK national, a Malaysian, a Singaporean and
three South Koreans.

Pilot Capt Iriyanto had more than 20,500 flight
hours, almost 7,000 of them with AirAsia. The co-
pilot was French national Remi Emmanuel Plesel.
At least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven
helicopters joined the operation when it resumed
at 06:00 local time, said Indonesian officials, with
the search now covering 13 different areas across
land and sea.
The multinational operation, led by Indonesia,
has been joined by Malaysia, Singapore and
Australia, with other offers of help from South
Korea, Thailand, China and France. The US
destroyer USS Sampson is on its way to the zone.
The BBC's Alice Budisatrijo at Surabaya's Juanda
airport says those offers come as welcome news to
the relatives, who understand the limited
technical capabilities of the Indonesian
authorities to locate and retrieve the plane,
especially if it is underwater.
'Then no reply'
The plane had left Surabaya at 05:35 Jakarta time
and had been due to arrive in Singapore two hours
later.
Wisnu Darjono, AirNav safety director, said Capt
Iriyanto requested permission to bank left at
06:12 to avoid a storm. The request was
immediately granted and the plane changed
course.
According to state navigation operator AirNav
Indonesia, the pilot then asked to take the plane
from 32,000ft (9,800m) to 38,000ft but did not
explain why he wanted to do so.
Indonesian air traffic control staff told the
pilot he could take the plane to 34,000ft but no
higher because another AirAsia airliner was
flying at 38,000ft.
"It took us around two to three minutes to
communicate with Singapore," Mr Darjono said.
"But when we informed the pilot of the approval
at 06:14, we received no reply."
The plane was officially declared missing at 07:55.
It is unclear what happened next but one report
suggests the plane may have tried to climb
through the storm.
Former pilots say a climb could have led to
reduced stability and possibly a fatal stall, as
cross winds and down draughts battered the
plane.
The AirAsia plane was delivered in 2008, has
flown 13,600 times, completing 23,000 hours, and
underwent its last maintenance in November.
AirAsia previously had an excellent safety
record and there were no fatal accidents
involving its aircraft.