AirAsia crash

This item appears on page 20 of the February 2015 issue.

An AirAsia Indonesia airliner carrying 162 passengers and crew crashed while flying from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore on Dec. 28. 

Flight QZ8501 was last heard from at 6:24 a.m. when the pilot asked for permission to climb above storm clouds the plane was approaching. The request was initially denied due to conflicting air traffic, but the plane disappeared from radar before pilots could be given further instructions.

On Dec. 30, after debris and bodies were discovered in the Java Sea near Borneo, Indonesian and AirAsia officials confirmed that the remains of flight QZ8501 had been found. As of press time, 37 bodies had been recovered.