This morning, there were two transportation tragedies – one on the seas and one in the air.
AirAsia Indonesia QZ 8501 Lost
AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 07:24hrs this morning http://t.co/WomRQuzcPO
— AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014
AirAsia Indonesia QZ8501 leaves the most questions unanswered as it lost all contact at 7:24 this morning (local time) as it was enroute from Surabaya to Singapore. This flight (an A320) left with 162 people onboard and had encountered rough weather as the pilot asked to divert due to the conditions. No sign of the plane has been sighted by rescue crews who suspended operations until tomorrow morning. This is certainly a tragedy and affecting hundreds of families. My thoughts and prayers are with these families as they try to hold onto hope of the plane being found – one way or another. To read more about this, here is the link to AirAsia’s Facebook page where they are posting updates.
Norman Atlantic Ferry Caught Fire
Airlift begins for hundreds trapped on burning #Italian ferry #NormanAtlantic http://t.co/sk4RcZyeIC pic.twitter.com/ppvlv26QxF
— The Straits Times (@STcom) December 28, 2014
On the seas, not too far from where I am, the Italian ferry Norman Atlantic, was making its way from Patras, Greece to Ancona, Italy. It had onboard over 200 vehicles and 478 people. It caught fire early this morning, Greek time, and has been making calls for evacuation since. As of about an hour ago, they have evacuated 161 people with 1 person reported dead and one injured.
Local reports say that the lifeboats were mostly unusable as the chains restraining them were rusted and unable to allow them to let down. Combined with the high winds and choppy seas, it has left the evacuation to choppers and other rescue vessels as they sent out a tug to bring in the ship to land. Again, our thoughts and prayers are with these individuals, their families, and the rescuers and hope that no more lives are lost as this rescue continues. For more, here is the BBC report.
