The Search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 Continues

The sudden disappearance of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 in the Indonesian airspace one hour after takeoff has fuelled a number of questions. For instance, what caused the loss of contact? Is air travel still safe? Why an Asian airline again?

Questions are countless but the fact remains that the Air Bus A320-200 took off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya at 05:36 GMT local time Sunday with 155 passengers and 7 crewmembers on board. The destination was Singapore, a journey that takes a little over two hours. It hadn’t been even an hour after takeoff, roughly around 06:12 GMT, one of the pilots asked air traffic control permission to turn and climb to a higher altitude in an attempt to avoid bad weather. Minutes later, the plane disappeared from air traffic control’s radar. At 07:55 GMT the plan was declared missing, its last known position being over the Java Sea, between the islands of Belitung and Borneo.

Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency chief Bambang Soelistyo says that the multinational search teams are scouring an area where the Java Sea is 40-50 metres (130-160 feet) deep. Indonesia has accepted Singapore's offer of two sets of underwater locator beacon detectors to scour the seabed. Unfortunately, the chances of mud and hard rock’s interference with sonar pings emitted by the plane's Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) are quite high.

Meanwhile, the airline company continues to provide support and assistance to the next-of-kin of passengers’ on Flight QZ8501. AirAsia has already flown 16 next-of-kin to Indonesia and plans to transport another 11 there on Monday, 29th December 2014.

For the latest news on mobile and current headlines on the AirAsia Flight search, keep logging on to News Mobile.

For the original version on newsmobile.in visit: http://www.newsmobile.in/articles/2014/12/29/search-airasia-flight-qz8501-live-report

NaMo Government in Distress over a WhatsApp Message

A popular social media platform, WhatsApp, created a bit of a mess for the government when a message started circulating that the Rajya Sabha has proposed to revise the retirement age in the Budget Session in March 2015. The message said that the Union Government has decided to reduce the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 58 years.

Shortly after the fake WhatsApp message was doing rounds, three ministers issued strong denials and even ordered an investigation to find out the origins of this message. Confirming that these are mere rumours, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was quoted by NDTV, “These are all baseless rumours and there is no question of altering the retirement age of central government employees. It is 60 years and will remain 60.”

The government has now launched an investigation to trace the person who circulated the wrong message, as it has caused great confusion among government employees and the political class. A senior government official said a probe has been initiated to trace out the offender as these false rumours were broadcasted on known television channels and circulated widely on social networking websites as well.

For the original version on newsmobile.in visit: http://www.newsmobile.in/articles/2014/12/19/whatsapp-woes-namo-govt