The Irrawaddy Magazine |
- Govt Calls for Foreign Investment in ‘Death Highway’ Upgrade
- Unclear Whether Oil, Objects Found in Indonesian Sea Linked to Lost Jet
- Rangoon Elects Businessmen, Doctor as New City Leaders
- Suu Kyi Blames Govt Inaction for Letpadaung Killing
- Strict Sharia Forces Gays into Hiding in Indonesia’s Aceh
- Amid Hacking Tensions, South Korea Proposes Resuming Talks With North
- Search Expands for Missing AirAsia Passenger Jet
| Govt Calls for Foreign Investment in ‘Death Highway’ Upgrade Posted: 29 Dec 2014 06:01 AM PST  Poor safety standards have led the Yangon-Mandalay highway to be regarded as a death trap by many motorists. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — The Ministry of Construction has unveiled plans to seek domestic and foreign investment for an upgrade of the Rangoon-Mandalay highway, a stretch of road known locally as the 'Death Highway' for its high incidence of traffic accidents and fatalities. On Sunday, the ministry called for expressions of interest to be submitted by Jan. 30 for a project to double the width of the highway to eight lanes and improve the road's support infrastructure. Under the build-operate-transfer proposal, the winning bidder of a future tender will construct and collect tolls on the highway for 30-40 years before ownership is transferred to divisional governments. "We will evaluate proposals and company backgrounds before we call the tender," said Kyi Zaw Myint, the highway project's chief engineer at the Ministry of Construction. "Developers will have not only build the road, but take care of long term maintenance and safety measures, as well as complying with international standards. It is possible that the eventual tender winners will be a foreign company or a joint venture between foreign and local partners." According to the ministry, the successful bidder for the upgrade of the 589-kilometer (366-mile) long highway will be responsible for widening the existing four lane asphalt road, laying guardrails, building service roads to nearby villages, and installing CCTV cameras to monitor traffic at toll stations and alert police to speeding drivers. This is the first time that the Ministry of Construction has invited foreign firms to register interest in domestic road projects. Several local construction companies have built or upgraded major roads under 30-year operating leases requiring long-term maintenance in exchange for a share of toll revenues. Earlier this year, The US Agency for International Development began providing technical assistance and safety training to the ministry's staff for future road projects. No other road in the country is in more urgent need of a safety upgrade than the Rangoon-Mandalay highway, which was hastily built in a manner that falls well below international safety standards. Completed in two tranches, the road connects Rangoon and Mandalay with the capital Naypyidaw. Forced labor was used in the road's construction, which was also plagued by funding shortfalls and accusations of corruption. From January this year alone, 147 people have died and 797 have been injured in 408 separate accidents. With the highway's upgrade, the ministry hopes to avoid repeating the mistakes of the initial project's rushed construction that have led to the road's abysmal accident record. "Safety is a high priority for us," Kyi Zaw Myint told The Irrawaddy. The post Govt Calls for Foreign Investment in 'Death Highway' Upgrade appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Unclear Whether Oil, Objects Found in Indonesian Sea Linked to Lost Jet Posted: 29 Dec 2014 05:08 AM PST  Indonesia's vice-president Jusuf Kalla, left, monitors progress in the search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 during a visit to the National Search and Rescue Agency in Jakarta on Dec. 28, 2014 in this picture supplied by Antara Foto. (Photo: Reuters / Antara) SURABAYA, Indonesia — An Indonesian helicopter searching for the missing AirAsia jetliner saw two oily spots in the water Monday, and an Australian search plane spotted objects elsewhere in the Java Sea, but it was too early to know whether either was connected to the aircraft and its 162 passengers and crew. In any case, officials saw little reason to believe AirAsia Flight 8501 met anything but a grim fate after it disappeared from radar Sunday morning over the Java Sea. Wary of bad weather, one of the pilots had asked to raise the plane's altitude just before it vanished, but was not allowed because another aircraft was in the way. "Based on the coordinates that we know, the evaluation would be that any estimated crash position is in the sea, and that the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea," Indonesia search and rescue chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo said. The Airbus A320-200 vanished in airspace thick with storm clouds on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Jakarta's air force base commander, Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto, said an Australian Orion aircraft had detected "suspicious" objects near Nangka island about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off central Kalimantan. That's about 700 miles (1,120 kilometers) from the location where the plane lost contact, but within Monday's greatly expanded search area. "However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane," Putranto said. "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions." Air Force spokesman Rear Marshal Hadi Tjahnanto told MetroTV that an Indonesian helicopter spotted two oily spots in the Java Sea east of Belitung island, much closer to where the plane lost contact than the objects viewed from the Australian plane. He said oil samples would be collected and analyzed to see if they are connected to the missing plane. The last communication from the cockpit to air traffic control was a request by one of the pilots to increase altitude from 32,000 feet (9,754 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters) because of the rough weather. Air traffic control was not able to immediately grant the request because another plane was in the airspace, said Bambang Tjahjono, director of the state-owned company in charge of air-traffic control. By the time clearance could be given, Flight 8501 had disappeared, Tjahjono said. The twin-engine, single-aisle plane, which never sent a distress signal, was last seen on radar four minutes after the last communication from the cockpit. First Adm. Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base, said 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were taking part in the search, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia. The Australian air force also sent a search plane. Many fishermen from Belitung island have joined in the search, and all vessels in that area of the sea have been alerted to be on the lookout for anything that could be linked to the plane. An Associated Press photographer flew in a C-130 with Indonesia's Air Force for 10 hours Monday over a section of the search area between Kalimantan and Belitung. The flight was bumpy at times and hovered low at 1,500 feet, giving clear visibility to waves, ships and fishermen. But nothing related to the plane was spotted. The plane's disappearance and suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia, and Malaysia in particular. Malaysia-based AirAsia's loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew. "Until today, we have never lost a life," AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes, who founded the low-cost carrier in 2001, told reporters in Jakarta's airport. "But I think that any airline CEO who says he can guarantee that his airline is 100 percent safe, is not accurate." He refused to address compensation issues or any changes that may be made to the airline as a result of this incident. "We have carried 220 million people up to this point," he said. "Of course, there's going to be some reaction, but we are confident in our ability to fly people, and we'll continue to be strong and continue to carry people who never could fly before." Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays. Ruth Natalia Puspitasari was among them. On Monday, her father, Suyanto, sat with his wife, who was puffy-eyed and coughing, near the family crisis center at Surabaya's airport. Suyanto remembers the concern his daughter showed for the families of the MH370 tragedy. Puspitasari once told him how sad it must be for the victims' relatives who were left waiting for their loved ones with no certainty. "Now she is gone in the missing plane, and we should face this sorrow, I can't believe it!" he said, tears rolling down his cracked cheeks. "This is too hard to be faced." He was still sleeping when Puspitasari left for the airport with her fiancé and future in-laws for a New Year's vacation. But he called her just before boarding, and she told him excitedly that they planned to celebrate her 26th birthday in Singapore on Monday. "I don't want to experience the same thing with what was happened with Malaysia Airlines," he said as his wife wept. "It could be a long suffering." But while authorities are pessimistic about the plane's fate, it is likely that the search will not be nearly as perplexing as the one for Flight 370. That plane is believed to have been deliberately diverted by someone on board to a remote area of the Indian Ocean where the water is kilometers deep. Flight 8501 vanished over a heavily traveled sea that is about 30 meters deep on average, with no sign of foul play. Flight 8501 took off Sunday morning from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, and was about halfway to Singapore when it vanished from radar. The jet had been airborne for about 42 minutes. The plane had an Indonesian captain, Iryanto, who uses one name, and a French co-pilot, five cabin crew members and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement. Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his 2-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians. AirAsia said the captain had more than 20,000 flying hours, of which 6,100 were with AirAsia on the Airbus 320. The first officer had 2,275 flying hours. "Papa, come home, I still need you," Angela Anggi Ranastianis, the captain's 22-year-old daughter, pleaded on her Path page late Sunday, which was widely quoted by Indonesian media. "Bring back my papa. Papa, please come home." At Iryanto's house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbors, relatives and friends gathered Monday to pray and recite the Quran to support the distraught family. Their desperate cries were so loud, they could sometimes be heard outside where three LCD televisions had been set up to monitor search developments. "He is a good man. That's why people here appointed him as our neighborhood chief for the last two years," said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a friend and neighbor. Many recalled him as an experienced Air Force pilot who flew F-16 fighter jets before becoming a commercial airline pilot. The lost aircraft had last undergone scheduled maintenance on Nov. 16, according to AirAsia. The airline has dominated budget travel in Southeast Asia for years, connecting the region's large cities with short routes. It highlights its low fares with the slogan, "Now everyone can fly." The post Unclear Whether Oil, Objects Found in Indonesian Sea Linked to Lost Jet appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Rangoon Elects Businessmen, Doctor as New City Leaders Posted: 29 Dec 2014 04:53 AM PST  The results of Rangoon's first municipal elections in more than 60 years are posted in City Hall on Dec. 29, 2014. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — About 2 percent of Rangoon's populationtook to the polls on Saturday to determine who will manage Burma's largest municipal area for the next 15 months. Htay Aung, Aye Min, Khin Hlaing and Khin Maung Tint will assume four coveted seats on the nine-member Central Committee of the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC), the highest municipal governing body. The committee's remaining five members, including the mayor, are all appointed by the national government. "I will do my best," said Aye Min, a doctor who will represent Rangoon's southern district. Of the other newly elected Central Committee members, Htay Aung and KhinHlaing are well-known businessmen, while KhinMaung Tint heads a family-owned concrete business. Aye Min said that because the majority of the Central Committee is government-appointed, "they will make the decisions, but we will ask." In the first citywide elections to be held in more than 60 years, 293 candidates vied for 115 seats at central, district and township levels of local governance. Winners of the remaining 111 seats on district and township committees were also announced at the YCDC Election Commission office in City Hall at around 2pm on Monday. About 8 percent of Rangoon's roughly 5 million residents were eligible to vote on Saturday, in an election that was limited to one vote per registered household. A dismal 26 percent turnout means that just 2 percent of the population is represented by the results. Restrictions on candidate and voter eligibility, stringent campaign rules and a lack of voter awareness were all cause for criticism in the weeks leading up to the vote. Zin Min Hlaing, a member of the YCDC Election Commission, told The Irrawaddy that while he was aware of some dissatisfaction with the polling process, the commission "still hasn't received any official complaints." The prevailing sentiment among voters was a general lack of awareness about who candidates were and when polls would take place. "I just found out about the election," said Khin Khin Yi, a 43-year-old woman from Insein Township, speaking to The Irrawaddy outside of a polling station on Saturday. "I didn't know about the collection of the voters' list, did they do that?" Khin Khin Yi said that "most of the neighborhood" was similarly unaware, knowing little or nothing about the candidates. The commission held a different view, claiming that information was readily available to voters. Zin Min Hlaing responded that the commission had made announcements in both state-run and private media, and that "it can't be helped" if voters were not well enough informed. Khin Hlaing, the winning candidate in Rangoon's western district, said the controversy could be beneficial for future elections, with which Burma has little experience due to decades of military rule ending less than four years ago. By-elections scheduled for late this year—which were cancelled in September—were expected to serve as a practice round for general elections in late 2015. "All elections have weaknesses," said Khin Hlaing."It's good to have objections because it shows an increase in public interest. The commission will learn from this for the next time." The post Rangoon Elects Businessmen, Doctor as New City Leaders appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Suu Kyi Blames Govt Inaction for Letpadaung Killing Posted: 28 Dec 2014 11:39 PM PST  Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at the 50th anniversary of the founding of Kawhmu Township in Rangoon Division. (Photo: Tin Htet Paing / The Irrawaddy) RANGOON — National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi has pointed the finger at the administration of President Thein Sein for a recent fatal shooting at the Letpadaung copper mine in central Burma. In response to questions from reporters, the opposition leader said last week that the government was responsible for rising tensions at the China-backed copper mine, as she attended the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Kawhmu Township, the constituency that she represents in Parliament. "We have provided ample recommendations," Suu Kyi said on Friday. "They [the administration] have to implement their fair share. If they want [me] to do it all, then hand over administrative power [to me] so that [I] can do everything." The mining project in Sagaing Division—a joint venture between China's Wanbao and the Burmese military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Ltd (UMEHL)—was suspended in November 2012 after a brutal police crackdown on protesters that saw scores, including monks, injured. Following the incident, operations at the mine were suspended and a commission was formed to investigate the project. Suu Kyi was assigned to chair the commission, which filed a report in early 2013 with a list of conditions that it recommended be met before resuming the project. The controversial venture resumed operations in October 2013. Suu Kyi added that a committee that was formed by the government to implement her report's recommendations had failed to act. "The committee did carry out some recommendations, but it has not fully implemented the recommendations. It has not followed the recommendations to the letter," she said. Wanbao has taken steps to placate residents affected by the project, including redrawing its contract to allocate 2 percent of profits for corporate social responsibility projects and $2 million annually toward environmental protection. Local opposition has lingered, however. On Dec. 22, Wanbao began fencing in disputed land, leading to clashes between police and locals that resulted in the death of 56-year-old Khin Win. Several others involved in the protest were also injured. The post Suu Kyi Blames Govt Inaction for Letpadaung Killing appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Strict Sharia Forces Gays into Hiding in Indonesia’s Aceh Posted: 28 Dec 2014 09:43 PM PST  A transgender person walks at her office in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, December 25, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) BANDA ACEH / JAKARTA, Indonesia — Overwhelmed by fear, members of the main gay rights group in the Indonesian town of Banda Aceh started burning piles of documents outside their headquarters in late October, worried that the sharia police would raid them at any moment. Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh had weeks earlier passed an anti-homosexuality law that punishes anyone caught having gay sex with 100 lashes. Amnesty International criticized it, saying it would add to a climate of homophobia and fear. "We are more afraid, of course," said a 31-year-old transgender person who, along with three other members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) group, Violet Grey, burned the pamphlets, group records and other papers. "As an institution, Violet Grey went as far as removing all documents related to LGBT. We burned them all," said the group member, who declined to be identified out of fear of being arrested. The province's tight-knit gay community, estimated by some at about 1,000 people, has become increasingly marginalized since Aceh was allowed to adopt Islamic sharia law as its legal code. Aceh was granted special regional autonomy as part of a 2005 peace agreement ending a three-decade old separatist insurgency. After the anti-homosexuality law was passed in September, Violet Grey began warning its 47 members to keep a lower profile and for gay and transgender people to avoid going out together as couples in public. No one has been arrested under the law, which Aceh officials say will not be enforced until the end of 2015 to allow residents time to prepare for it. But this has not eased the fear in the gay community. Even before the law, life was not easy for gay people in the most religiously conservative part of Indonesia, the north of Sumatra island where Islam first arrived in the archipelago. The gay community is a target of regular harassment from sharia police and residents. Transgender people are particularly vulnerable because of the difficulty of concealing themselves in public. In 2011, a transgender make-up artist was stabbed to death in Banda Aceh after she held up a stick in response to a man's taunts. Other Provinces to Follow? Aceh authorities defend the law, saying it does not violate human rights because gay people are free to live together but they just cannot have sex. The law also sets out punishment for various acts apart from gay sex including unmarried people engaging in displays of affection, adultery and underage sex. "It is forbidden because in the sharia context, the act is vile," Syahrizal Abbas, the head of Aceh's sharia department, which drew up the law, told Reuters. "It brings unhealthy psychological impact to human development, and it will affect the community." Outside Aceh, Indonesia is generally tolerant of gay people, particularly in urban areas like Jakarta. Engaging in homosexual acts is not a crime under Indonesia's national criminal code but remains taboo in many conservative parts of the country, which has the world's largest Muslim population. Gay rights groups fear other conservative provinces, such as South Sumatra and East Java could follow Aceh's lead if Indonesia's new president, Joko Widodo, does not step in and overturn the law. Widodo's administration is reviewing the law to see whether it violates human rights but it can only request changes and cannot overturn it, said Teguh Setyabudi, the home ministry's head of regional autonomy. The Violet Grey member hopes the law will eventually be overturned so she can walk home without watching her back in fear. "Being like this is our fate, not a choice," she said. "What makes people wearing a jilbab and peci feel so righteous that they can condemn other people as sinful?" she asked, referring to a woman's veil and a traditional Muslim cap worn by men. The post Strict Sharia Forces Gays into Hiding in Indonesia's Aceh appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Amid Hacking Tensions, South Korea Proposes Resuming Talks With North Posted: 28 Dec 2014 09:39 PM PST  A barbed wire fence decorated with ribbons bearing messages wishing the unification of the two Koreas is pictured near the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea in Paju on Oct. 31, 2014. (Photo: Reuters) SEOUL — South Korea proposed on Monday to resume stalled talks with North Korea, an overture that comes amid heightened diplomatic tension after Seoul's key ally the United States blamed the North for a cyberattack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. North Korea has denied responsibility for the hack against the US-based film studio arm of Japan's Sony Corp, which distributed a comedy film featuring an assassination plot against the North's leader, Kim Jong-un. Pyongyang subsequently blamed Washington for its own Internet outages, and has denied any involvement in recent system breaches into South Korea's state nuclear power operator. Seoul's unification minister said the South had sent a letter to Pyongyang seeking negotiations, which it hopes to hold in January and would cover issues including reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and possible co-operation projects. The North had accepted the letter but had yet to respond, South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told a news briefing. "I don't think we will have any particular agenda, but our position is to discuss everything that South and North have mutual interests in," said Ryoo, noting that 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan. A delegation of high-level North Korean officials made a surprise visit in October to the closing ceremony of the Asian Games hosted by the South, and promised to reopen dialogue between the two. However, the two sides failed to hold follow-up talks as tension persisted, with the North lashing out at the South over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets sent to the North via balloon by activist groups. Military officials from North and South Korea met in October to discuss border altercations, including exchanges of fire, but they did not resolve their differences. South Korea imposed a broad set of sanctions on Pyongyang in 2010 following the sinking of a South Korean corvette that killed 46 sailors. South Korea blamed the North, while Pyongyang denied it was responsible, and the issue has been an obstacle to re-engagement ever since. Ryoo said South Korea would explain to the North its inter-Korean cooperation plans, including a peace park at the demilitarized zone, adding that it was seeking a fresh round of reunions for families separated by the Korean War before the Lunar New Year holidays in February. The two Koreas have remained technically at war for more than six decades as the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. Reunification of the Korean peninsula has been a priority for South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The post Amid Hacking Tensions, South Korea Proposes Resuming Talks With North appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
| Search Expands for Missing AirAsia Passenger Jet Posted: 28 Dec 2014 09:29 PM PST  A man asks an officer for information about a family member who was aboard AirAsia flight QZ8501 at Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport on Sunday. (Photo: Beawiharta / Reuters). SURABAYA, Indonesia — The search for a missing AirAsia jet carrying 162 people that disappeared more than 24 hours ago on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore expanded Monday with planes and ships from several countries taking part. First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base, said that 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were talking part, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia. The Australian Air Force also sent a search plane. Setiayana said visibility was good. "God willing, we can find it soon," he told Associated Press. AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished in airspace thick with storm clouds on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Searchers had to fight against heavy rain on Sunday before work was suspended due to darkness. The plane’s disappearance and suspected crash caps an astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia. The Malaysia-based carrier’s loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine. At the Surabaya airport, passengers' relatives pored over the plane's manifest, crying and embracing. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list. The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia’s Lombok island, and had been happy to get the work. 'He just told me, 'Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,'" Adityas recalled, holding her grandson tight while weeping uncontrollably. Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays. The Airbus A320 took off Sunday morning from Indonesia’s second-largest city and was about halfway to Singapore when it vanished from radar. The jet had been airborne for about 42 minutes. There was no distress signal from the twin-engine, single-aisle plane, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director general of transportation. The last communication between the cockpit and air traffic control was at 6:13am (23:13 GMT Saturday), when one of the pilots asked to increase altitude from 32,000 feet (9,754 meters) to 38,000 feet (11,582 meters), Murjatmodjo said. The jet was last seen on radar at 6:16am and was gone a minute later, he told reporters. Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia launched a search-and-rescue operation near Belitung island in the Java Sea, the area where the airliner lost contact with the ground. AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes flew to Surabaya and told a news conference that the focus for now should be on the search and the families rather than the cause of the incident. "We have no idea at the moment what went wrong," said Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman who founded the low-cost carrier in 2001. "Let’s not speculate at the moment." Malaysia-based AirAsia has a good safety record and had never lost a plane. But Malaysia itself has already endured a catastrophic year, with 239 people still missing from Flight 370 and all 298 people aboard Flight 17 killed when it was shot down over rebel-held territory in Ukraine. AirAsia said Flight 8501 was on its submitted flight plan but had requested a change due to weather. Sunardi, a forecaster at Indonesia’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, said dense storm clouds were detected up to 13,400 meters (44,000 feet) in the area at the time. "There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds," said Sunardi. Airline pilots routinely fly around thunderstorms, said John Cox, a former accident investigator. Using on-board radar, flight crews can typically see a storm forming from more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) away. In such cases, pilots have plenty of time to find a way around the storm cluster or look for gaps to fly through, he said. "It’s not like you have to make an instantaneous decision," Cox said. Storms can be hundreds of miles long, but "because a jet moves at eight miles a minute, if you to go 100 miles out of your way, it’s not a problem." Authorities have not said whether they lost only the secondary radar target, which is created by the plane’s transponder, or whether the primary radar target, which is created by energy reflected from the plane’s body, was lost as well, Cox said. The plane had an Indonesian captain, Iryanto, who uses one name, and a French co-pilot, five cabin crewmembers and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the airline said in a statement. Among the passengers were three South Koreans, a Malaysian, a British national and his two-year-old Singaporean daughter. The rest were Indonesians. AirAsia said the captain more than 20,000 flying hours, of which 6,100 were with AirAsia on the Airbus 320. The first officer had 2,275 flying hours. "Papa, come home, I still need you," Angela Anggi Ranastianis, the captain’s 22-year-old daughter pleaded on her Path page late Sunday, which was widely quoted by Indonesian media. "Bring back my papa. Papa, please come home." At Iryanto’s house in the East Java town of Sidoarjo, neighbors, relatives and friends gathered Monday to pray and recite the Quran to support the distraught family. Their desperate cries were so loud, they could sometimes be heard outside where three LCD televisions had been set up to monitor search developments. "He is a good man. That’s why people here appointed him as our neighborhood chief for the last two years," said Bagianto Djoyonegoro, a friend and neighbor, adding that despite being busy with his job, Iryanto was always very active in the community and attentive to the needs of the people around him. Many recalled him as an experienced Air Force pilot who flew F-16 fighter jets before becoming a commercial airline pilot. At Surabaya airport, dozens of relatives sat in a room waiting for news, many of them talking on mobile phones and crying. Dimas, who goes by one name, said his wife, 30-year-old Ratri Sri Andriani, had been on the flight to lead a group of 25 Indonesian tourists on a trip to Singapore and Malaysia. He was holding out hope that the plane had made an emergency landing. "We can just pray and hope that all those aboard are safe," said Dimas, who was surrounded by Ratri’s parents and friends at the airport crisis center. The missing aircraft was delivered to AirAsia in October 2008, and the plane had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours during some 13,600 flights, Airbus said in a statement. The aircraft had last undergone scheduled maintenance on Nov. 16, according to AirAsia. The airline, which has dominated cheap travel in Southeast Asia for years, flies short routes of just a few hours, connecting the region’s large cities. Recently, it has tried to expand into long-distance flying through sister airline AirAsia X. The A320 family of jets, which includes the A319 and A321, has a good safety record, with just 0.14 fatal accidents per million takeoffs, according to a safety study published by Boeing in August. Flight 8501 disappeared while at its cruising altitude, which is usually the safest part of a trip. Just 10 percent of fatal crashes from 2004 to 2013 occurred while a plane was in that stage of flight, the safety report said. The post Search Expands for Missing AirAsia Passenger Jet appeared first on The Irrawaddy. |
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