Kalla Meets Families Of Passengers Abroad Missing AirAsia Flight

Sidoarjo, E Java, Dec 30 (Antara) -- Vice President Jusuf Kalla met with the families of passengers aboard the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 here on Monday. The flight, which was headed to Singapore from Juanda Airport, has been missing since Sunday. The vice president was accompanied by Coordinating Minister of Human and Culture Development Puan Maharani, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan, and a number of local officials from East Java, among others. "The government extends its sympathies to the families of the passengers. The government and other agencies such as the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), the military, police force, and people have been working together to search for the missing plane. Singapore and Malaysia are also helping. We hope we have better results to report today," Kalla said while meeting with the family members and relatives of the passengers at Juanda Airport. It is more difficult to find a flight in the sea than on land, he stated, adding, "But we will put in our best efforts even in the current bad weather conditions." "The government has yet to give a deadline for when the search operations will be halted. But being determined to find the victims soon is more important," Kalla emphasized. The Singapore-bound plane, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact a few minutes after taking off from Juanda International Airport on Sunday morning. It is believed to have gone missing in the waters between the provinces of Bangka Belitung and West Kalimantan. The AirAsia aircraft was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members. Based on data from the Angkasa Pura I airport management company, the flight had two pilots, Captain Iriyanto and First Officer Remi Emmanuel Plesel, four cabin crew members, Wanti Setiawati, Khairunnisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar Desano, and Wismoyo Ari Prambudi, and a technician, Saiful Rakhmad, onboard. According to AirAsia Indonesia, seven passengers on the missing flight were foreigners. The foreign nationals included three Koreans, a Singaporean, a Briton, a Malaysian, and a French first officer. "The 155 others on the flight, including the crew members, were Indonesian nationals," AirAsia Indonesia`s Communication officer Malinda Yasmin affirmed. Furthermore, Basarnas is focusing its efforts to find the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 in the waters of East Belitung on Monday, the second day of the search and rescue operations. "We are conducting search operations in the east off Belitung Island, based on where the aircraft made its last contact," Operations Director of Basarnas Air Commodore S. B. Supriyadi noted on Monday. Basarnas will comb the waters off east Belitung Island and head southeast. "Later, we will also search the coastal areas of West Kalimantan," he added.