PETALING JAYA: The Surabaya-Singapore route taken by AirAsia flight QZ8501, which went missing Sunday, was very cloudy, the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said.
“Based on the agency’s weather map, there were a lot of thick, layered clouds on the Surabaya-Singapore route (when the incident occurred),” BMKG head Andi Eka Sakya said, as reported by Antara news agency in Jakarta on Sunday.
He said it was suspected that the thick, layered cumulonimbus clouds had caused the Airbus A320-200 to crash.
“Based on our weather map, the cumulonimbus clouds were monitored over the western part of Sumatra – between Belitung and Pontianak in West Kalimantan, over all Kalimantan and Sulawesi and over Lombok,” said Andi.
He said there was speculation that the aircraft had taken a route between Belitung and Pontianak and passed over “very thick clouds”.
Acting director general of Air Transportation at the Transportation Ministry, Djoko Murjatmodjo, said in a press conference on Sunday that the last communication between the pilot, Capt Irianto, and air traffic control occurred at 6:12am local time, during which the pilot asked to turn left and climb to 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.
“At 6:16am, QZ8501 was still seen on the flight radar screen. At 6:17 it lost contact and only its flight plan track was seen,” said Djoko. There was no distress signal from the cockpit," he added.
“The aircraft was in good condition but the weather there was not good,” Djoko said.
The Airbus A320-200 is believed to have gone missing somewhere over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung island and Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
