It is good to hear the journalists being corrected here, because this incident does not yet seem to resemble the Air France or Malaysia Airlines events. Perhaps the journalists did not closely follow the excruciating Air France 447 search–YEARS spent scouring the Atlantic for the wreckage–long after initial debris and was found. So early in this investigation, journalists should be warning the world that EVERYTHING is speculation at this point.

What is not speculation?

• The pilots requested to deviate around bad weather, right before contact ceased.
• The last radio contact was at 06:16 local time.
• Transponder contact was lost at 06:18 local time.
• The captain had a total of 20,537 flying hours, 6100 hours of which were for Indonesia Air Asia.
• The first officer had 2,275 hours with Indonesia Air Asia.
• The crew was mostly French, so the BEA will be investigating. (Countries which have nationals aboard normally participate in the investigation.) The passengers’ list of nationalities has changed several times but currently the passengers aboard were allocated as follows: 155 Indonesian, 3 S. Korean, 1 Malaysian, 1 French, 1 British and 1 Singaporean. Some may hold multiple citizenships.
• A number of countries are contributing to the investigation, including Indonesia, Singapore, and the BEA. The USA and Australia have also offered to assist. 12 Indonesian navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were talking part, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia.
• Indonesia’s Ministry of Transport published the load sheet. (See below.)

The search is being hindered by weather, visibility and the fact that it is currently night-time. Unlike Air France 447, the plane was being tracked by a local navy base so it was not completely off radar; unlike MH370, the area it seems to have disappeared seems to be known in real time and not hours after the fact. We have not yet heard if the beacon is audible, but IT IS STILL TOO EARLY To MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. Let’s let the investigation tell the story, rather than rampant theorizing. The Java sea where the plane lost contact is shallower than where Malaysia Airlines flight 370 appears to have gone down. Unlike MH370, nothing by INMARSAT is being tracked aboard the missing Airbus.

Let’s wait and see what the investigation finds, and in the meantime, pray for the families of those aboard.

Read More about Air Asia 8501

The post Investigation On for Air Asia Indonesia Airbus A320-200, PK-AXC, flight QZ-8501 first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

In a public statement, after the April 8 day’s search for #MH370, RAAF P3 Orion captain Flt Lt said that he was optimistic about the wreckage being found.

Unlike the AF447 search at a parallel point in the search timeline one month in, there has been no visual confirmation of any wreckage or debris, possibly due to tropical storms in the Indian Ocean. The official statement is that the pings have been narrowed down to a twelve mile radius, but searchers are still trying to narrow this area.

Once the area has been narrowed down, an autonomous underwater vehicle will be deployed in a grid (so-called Mowing Lawn pattern) until wreckage has been located.

If the wreckage is found soon, it will have taken twenty-three months less than the search for Air France 447. So one should be perhaps less optimistic about the search, and more determined.

Most recently, Australia announced the search area down to 75,000 sq km. Searchers plan to keep using the Ocean Shield, because it searches more area faster. Once the area is pinned down, they plan to deploy the AUV.

The post #MH370 Statement by Orion Captain regarding #Search Status first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

Will the Remus be deployed to search for MH370? The Remus is the platform used to search for AirFrance 447, rated to 6000 meters. The AUV device was famously designed by the Naval Oceanographic Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution – WHOI, in support of deep-water autonomous operations.

Why would the Remus be ideal for the @MH370 search?

The video below discusses the AF447 and the Titanic search, among others.

See Remus Specs

The post Moving the @MH370 Search Forward: Remus AUV first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

In poor visibility and blowing snow, the 442 Transport and Rescue Squad hoisted Search and Rescue Teams 300 feet through trees to the waiting snowboarder who was retrieved, then flown to Vancouver International Airport and handed over to B.C. Ambulance.

The post Snowboarder Rescued by Search and Rescue team first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.