AirAsia QZ8501: Search zone for missing plane expanded

The hunt for AirAsia flight QZ8501 has entered a third day, with the search area widened to cover land and sea.

Indonesian officials say they are sending teams to investigate reports of smoke on an island in East Bilutung, inside the expanded search zone.

The Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people, disappeared on Sunday shortly after leaving Surabaya in eastern Java, Indonesia, on its way to Singapore.

The pilot's last contact was a request to divert around bad weather.

Countries around the region as well as the US, France and Australia are joining the search over the Java sea.

Indonesian officials say air traffic control approved one request, then gave clearance to a second request - asking permission to climb - two to three minutes later.

No reply was received and the plane disappeared from radar. No trace has yet been found.

President Joko Widodo dismissed suggestions that debris and oil from the fuel tanks may have been discovered by saying: "We have to tell it like it is... So far our efforts haven't found clarity about the plane's position."

While some relatives will keep the fire of hope burning, there is the developing, devastating realisation for others that their loved ones will not be found alive.

It is an agony that people here are beginning to get used to as time drags on and optimism and hope ebb away.

On board the plane were 137 adult passengers, 17 children and one infant, along with two pilots and five crew.

Most were Indonesian but the passengers included one UK national, a Malaysian, a Singaporean and three South Koreans.

Pilot Capt Iriyanto had more than 20,500 flight hours, almost 7,000 of them with AirAsia. The co-pilot was French national Remi Emmanuel Plesel.

On Tuesday, Indonesian search and rescue officials said they were deploying teams to investigate reports of "billowing smoke" on Long Island, just south of Belitung island, inside the search zone.

At least 30 ships, 15 aircraft and seven helicopters joined the operation when it resumed at 06:00 local time, said Indonesian officials, with the search now covering 13 different areas across land and sea.

The multinational operation, led by Indonesia, has been joined by Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, with other offers of help from South Korea, Thailand, China and France. The US destroyer USS Sampson is on its way to the zone.

The BBC's Alice Budisatrijo at Surabaya's Juanda airport says those offers come as welcome news to the relatives, who understand the limited technical capabilities of the Indonesian authorities to locate and retrieve the plane, especially if it is underwater.

Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia's search-and-rescue agency, told the Associated Press that military helicopters had been despatched to scour land over Borneo island.

"Until now, we have not yet found any signal or indication of the plane's whereabouts," he said.

On Monday, he said he suspected the aircraft was at the bottom of the sea, but there is so far no evidence of this.

Indonesian officials confirmed on Tuesday that material spotted on the seas off Belitung island was not aviation fuel as had been thought.

'Then no reply'

The plane had left Surabaya at 05:35 Jakarta time and had been due to arrive in Singapore two hours later.

Wisnu Darjono, AirNav safety director, said Capt Iriyanto requested permission to bank left at 06:12 to avoid a storm. The request was immediately granted and the plane changed course.

According to state navigation operator AirNav Indonesia, the pilot then asked to take the plane from 32,000ft (9,800m) to 38,000ft but did not explain why he wanted to do so.

Indonesian air traffic control staff told the pilot he could take the plane to 34,000ft but no higher because another AirAsia airliner was flying at 38,000ft.

"It took us around two to three minutes to communicate with Singapore," Mr Darjono said. "But when we informed the pilot of the approval at 06:14, we received no reply."

The plane was officially declared missing at 07:55.

It is unclear what happened next but one report suggests the plane may have tried to climb through the storm.

Former pilots say a climb could have led to reduced stability and possibly a fatal stall, as cross winds and down draughts battered the plane.

The AirAsia plane was delivered in 2008, has flown 13,600 times, completing 23,000 hours, and underwent its last maintenance in November.

AirAsia previously had an excellent safety record and there were no fatal accidents involving its aircraft.