The causes may cause AirAsia to disappear

The way pilots deal with unstable weather conditions may be one of the reasons why AirAsia's QZ8501 plane disappeared in the morning.

The aircraft with the number QZ8501 carrying 155 passengers and 7 crew members on the way from Indonesia to Singapore on the morning of December 28 is missing. The bad weather and torrential rain at the time the aircraft lost contact with the air traffic checkpoint raised suspicion that extreme weather conditions could be one of the causes of the incident.

Changi Airport staff holds a sign to show relatives of AirAsia passengers on flight QZ8501.(Photo: Reuters)

A minute before losing the signal, the pilot asked to raise the altitude of the aircraft because of the unstable weather. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis said the move is more likely to take the aircraft away from the turbulent air.

Bad weather

"Air turbulence cannot make an airplane fall," CNN quoted Maginnis as saying. "Perhaps raising the altitude is a way for pilots to respond to turbulence. It is also possible that the aircraft flies too close to a storm. There are many cases to consider , " he added.

According to Richard Quest aviation expert, the bad weather "can't make the plane fall by itself". "Perhaps the problem in this case lies in the way the pilot responds to weather conditions , " Quest said.

Satellite image capturing weather on Indonesian airspace when the plane went missing.(Photo: BBC)

Pilots need to be deeply aware and trained to deal with heavy rains and severe floods in the area, Maginnis said. It is also possible for pilots to encounter monsoon weather. They must undergo training to deal with this situation, he added.

The captain and vice-captain of the aircraft had a total of 8,000 flight hours. This shows that they are all "experienced enough" , Mr. Quest said.

According to Mary Schiavo, former inspector of the US Department of Transportation, an aviation analyst from CNN, the weather has changed very quickly and the pilots have little time to act."Bad weather conditions can cause impacts, affecting elevations of nearly 16,000 meters, while the maximum range of aircraft is only 12,000 meters, so they don't have much choice , " he said. comment.

Technical difficulties

Location estimates where AirAsia aircraft are missing.(Graphics: MediaCorp)

Neil Hansford, chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, told Herald Sun that he believed the missing aircraft was less likely to experience technical problems before it disappeared.

"The aircraft has been operating for only 6.3 years. The Indonesian regulator has actually invested in infrastructure and has raised its standards over the past few years , " he said, adding pepper. Indonesia's pilot training standards are also quite high.

Hypothesis

One of the most popular hijacking assumptions when MH370 disappeared were terrorists who redirected aircraft to the Middle East.

Mr. Hansford said that this assumption cannot happen to QZ8501."This is a very different case. MH370. This plane is not capable of flying too far to make a big detour , " he said, but it is not excluded this is a terrorist incident.

Relatives of passengers on QZ8501 numbered flight are missing waiting at the airport.(Photo: Twitter)

Meanwhile, according to Malaysia's China Press daily, police said they had not received any information or evidence that the incident of the missing plane was related to terrorism.

Hours after the plane disappeared, the Malaysian Ministry of Transport announced the launch of a search and rescue operation."They need to conduct a maritime review but not necessarily just looking for a plane. Any clues are important ," Schiavo said.

According to the Maginnis, compared to the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines airline MH370 in March, this mission may not be as big. However, it is still "a fairly wide area".