Flight Reportedly Departed Without Proper Clearances

After AirAsia Flight 8501 went down December 28 in the Java Sea, the Indonesian government is examining the licenses and schedules of all Indonesian airlines to be sure they are not violating any rules and have proper paperwork for the routes they fly.

The Associated Press reports that AirAsia had not received the proper clearances from the government to fly on that day. The airline was authorized to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, but not on Sunday, which is when the accident occurred. Officials said that Singapore had authorized the Sunday flight, but not Indonesia.

In response to the accident, The Indonesian transportation ministry has forced the cancellation of all AirAsia flights between the two cities. Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting director general of air transportation, said that several officials had been suspended for allowing the flight to take off, and the ministry issued a new directive December 31 which requires all all airlines to provide its pilots with current weather information on their routes of flight. Previously, the pilot and co-pilot had the responsibility for obtaining a weather briefing, and weather on December 28 is one of the factors being examined in the accident. The pilot had contacted air traffic controllers to say he had threatening weather on his route, but was denied a request to climb to a higher altitude because of other traffic.

AirAsia has had a good safety record prior to this accident, its first since it began operation in 2001.

(AirAsia A320 pictured in file photo. Not accident airplane)

FMI: http://hubud.dephub.go.id/?en/page/detail/19