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.
Related story: Indonesia may have located jet's tail section
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Latest developments
- 37 bodies found
Four more identified
5pm: Four more of the 37 bodies have been identified today, reports detik.com .
They are:
1. Shiane Josal, 45 years old, from Makassar
2. Tony Linaksita, 42 years old, from Surabaya
3. Yap Koen Lim, 61 years old, from Surabaya
4. Jou Yongki, 53 years old, from Surabaya.
All are Indonesian nationals.
Mangled passenger seat found
4.30pm: A mangled passenger seat has been recovered during the search, and transported to Pangkalan Bun, reports Channel NewsAsia .
3.45pm: One of the family members of the deceased passengers, Franky Chandra, says that a majority of families of the deceased have refused the compensation of Indonesian rupiah 300 million (about RM85,000) offered by AirAsia, reports detik.com .
Franky is the brother of Gani Chandra, one of the missing passengers.
AirAsia and families of the passengers have met a few times in Surabaya since the plane went missing.
Franky is not sure if this is part of the insurance payout but says the terms and conditions of the compensation are not very accurate.
However he also says some families might have accepted compensation.
Famiy members to be brought to site
3pm: Indonesian Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan has ordered that all officials on duty at the time QZ8501 went missing be suspended, reports detik.com .
Channel NewsAsia reports that Indonesian Armed Forces chief Moeldoko has offered to bring family members of the victims to the crash site.
Speaking at a news conference, Moeldoko says the family members will be flown by military plane to Pangkalan Bun, before boarding a navy ship to the search area.
Chief of Police Sutarman also assures family members that all bodies will be identified. He adds that there are 260 doctors on site, assisted by foreign experts, to carry out the tasks, reports CNA .
'Flight was legally made'
2.30pm: Indonesian media portals are heatedly discussing how the ill-fated plane had taken off if there was no permission from the authorities.
Primantohadi, chief of authority for Wilayah III Bandara Juanda, Surabaya, insists the flight was legal as there was coordination from all authorities, including Air Navigation and Angkasa Pura I, says detik.com .
Co-founder and co-owner of AirAsia Group Kamaruddin Meranun also says that AirAsia has not broken any rules.
Kamaruddin says this in response to detik.com, which asks if there is corruption involved or whether the airline had indeed flouted the authorities.
Three more bodies spotted
2pm: Malaysian navy chief says that three more bodies have been spotted and the search team is now recovering them from the sea.
"KD Kasturi found another body at 1130G in Sector IV.
"The body and the two found earlier were recovered, 1 female and 2 unidentified," Abdul Aziz Jaafar (right) tweets.
1.15pm: The weather has reportedly taken a turn for the worse, but search aircraft from Russia BE 200 insisted on participating in the search.
"The weather is not so good today. There are many red clouds which can turn into cumulonimbus clouds," says an SAR spokesperson to detik.com .
Cumulonimbus clouds have been mooted as one of the possible factors of the crash.
Earlier, Reuters has reported that Indonesian navy divers took advantage of early morning good weather to continue the search.
Frozen route lesson to other airlines
11.30am: The Transport Ministry says that the route taken by QZ8501 has never been approved for AirAsia to fly on Sundays, reports detik.com .
In a press conference, the ministry says that other airlines should learn from the tragedy and take note.
Meanwhile, a senior AirAsia pilot slammed aviation analysts who are making pilots paranoid about flying.
"Aviation analysts should keep their opinions to themselves.
"The cumulonimbus cloud is a friend to pilots, not an enemy or a bad luck harbinger," says Dwi Harso Syah to detik.com .
The pilot with 31 years of flying experience says that aviation analysts have become uncontrollable now, making pilots doubt themselves.
8.30am: The Indonesian Transportation Ministry is expected to give more details on icing regarding the route taken by the ill-fated plane.
"We will give more details in a press conference later so as to avoid more speculation," says a ministry spokesperson, according to detik.com .
Meanwhile, the search enters the ninth day with high waves in the sea and the total number of bodies found totalling 34.
Tony calls Malaysian media 'silly'
8.20am: AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes lambasts Malaysian media over reports that the engines on the Surabaya - Bandung flight QZ7633 carrying 161 passengers reportedly stalled before take-off yesterday.
"Silly headlines in Malaysia. AirAsia Indonesia aircraft did not have a stalled engine. An APU which is ground power had to be restarted," he tweeted past midnight.
This was followed by a series of tweets which kept saying that the facts will come out soon and his focus now is on the families of victims of the QZ8501.
