AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Search Latest News: Still Not Found as Search Continues

In a year that has seen the mind boggling disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 and the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine, the presumed crash of AirAsia Flight QZ8501with 162 people on board has thrown several countries in Asia under a pall of gloom.

The A320-200 passenger jet went off the radar on Saturday, Dec. 27, while it was flying from Surabaya in eastern Java, Indonesia, to Singapore. All seemed to be going fine until about an hour into the flight when the captain asked for a deviation from the pre-planned route in order to circumvent storm clouds.

More details were provided by Indonesia's ministry of transport which stated that the pilot had requested permission to climb above the clouds to 38,000 feet. This was not granted as there was another flight above QZ8501. The official from the ministry further explained that five minutes later the plane disappeared from radar.

Since the aircraft's disappearance, planes from several countries including Indonesia, Australia and Singapore have been searching the sea near Borneo and Java. But as of Monday night, no wreckage had been spotted yet.

The search team includes at least a dozen ships from the Indonesian navy and at least three helicopters and five planes. Aircraft and ships from Singapore, Australia and Malaysia are also participating in the search as well as fishing boats from various nations.

It is has been presumed that since QZ8501 was about half way through its two-hour journey when it vanished from radar, the plane could now be at the bottom of the sea.

There was a glimmer of hope earlier when objects were spotted in the sea on Monday, but shortly thereafter Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced that they were in no way connected to the plane.