Access, denied: AirAsia flight was refused permission to increase altitude

Pilots of the AirAsia plane thought to have crashed in the Java Sea were refused permission to climb higher to avoid a storm, according to Indonesia’s air travel chief. Joko Muryo Atmodjo said Flight QZ8501 had asked to ascend from 32,000ft (9,753m) to 38,000ft (11,582m) but controllers denied the request because of heavy air traffic. Five minutes later the plane fell off the radar without sending any distress signal. The aircraft had been on its way from Surabaya, on the Indonesian island of Java, to Singapore. The search team’s grim prediction is that the Airbus A320 is now “likely at the bottom of the sea.”

As you climb higher the temperature gets colder … the speed comes down – your margin of error is less.

Pilot Ray Karam Singh

Data from Flightradar24.com showed several other planes were between 34,000 to 36,000ft when it disappeared on Sunday morning. Unconfirmed secondary radar from Malaysia suggests it was climbing at 100 knots too slow. Pilot Ray Karam Singh, who is familiar with the route, told Sky News icy conditions at high altitudes might have caused the plane to stall. Search teams have found “suspicious” objects 1100 km from where the plane disappeared but no link has been confirmed. The Harper government has said it has received no indication that any Canadians were on board the flight.

World qz8501