QZ8501 DAY 11 AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore flight carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members on board crashed into the sea off Kalimantan on the morning of Dec 28, after taking off from Surabaya in Java, Indonesia, at 5.20am local time.
Search and rescue (SAR) operations continue to scour the crash area off the southwest tip of Kalimantan for wreckage and bodies.
Malaysiakini brings you the live updates of information as it comes in.
Latest developments
- AirAsia says it has permit to fly Surabaya-Singapore seven times a week, discrepancy was administrative error
AirAsia: We have permit for seven days a week
4.12pm: AirAsia Indonesia has permit to fly from Surabaya to Singapore seven days a week, AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes (left) says.
"We have secured slots as well as approval from both Indonesia and Singapore. What hapened was purely an administrative error," he says in a statement.
He recommends that Indonesia adopt Singapore's integrated computerised system "so that everyone is on the same page".
2pm: Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo, reports Reuters .
However, the news agency says, strong winds and high waves have prevented divers from reaching larger pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor.
Tail section found
1.36pm: The tail of the plane where the blackbox is has been found in the Java Sea, Indonesia's search and rescue chief Bambang Soelitsyo confirms .
"We have successfully obtained part of the plane that has been our target. The tail portion has been confirmed found," Australia's ABC reports him as saying.
1.07pm: Two more bodies arrive in Surabaya for identification, reports Channel New Asia . This brings total of bodies retrieved to 39.
The Singapore news channel also reports that volunteers turn up in droves at the crisis centre there, offering families of victims massages, food and psychological support.
Pilots now get briefed on weather
12.15pm : AirAsia Indonesia's pilots are now briefed by flight operations officers on the weather, CNN reports.
The airline's spokesperson said before the crash, the pilots would get copies of the weather information via email and brief themselves.
The airline still does not pick up its weather reports in person from the weather and meteorology agency and defends its practice.
But CNN says by not picking up the physical reports, the airline misses the opportunity to get face-to-face alerts on potential dangers.
Two officials at Surabaya's airport operations department were reassigned Monday pending investigation.
11.10am: Leaked communications between the Surabaya air traffic controllers and QZ8501 pilot shows the Air Traffic Control (ATC) cleared the flight for take off, Astro Awani reports.
This despite Indonesian officials saying the Air Asia Indonesia is not licenced to fly the Surabaya-Singapore route on Sunday.
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) confirms that the schedule from its Surabaya counterpart shows the QZ8501 flight on Sunday.
Listen to the leaked communications here .
Only data from black box reliable
9.30am: The authorities involved have yet to pinpoint the exact cause of the crash despite all the assumptions and will rely fully on data from the black box, once found, says detik.com .
Yesterday, Reuters reported Indonesian officials saying the black box of QZ8501 may be buried in the seabed or muddy waters and this is stopping the signal.
9am: The weather is predicted to be conducive for searching purposes today at the crash site, says the metrological department, reports detik.com . As of today, 39 bodies have been recovered and 16 identified.