Nine months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared shortly after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501, an Airbus A320 airliner carrying 162 people, disappeared from radar screens early Sunday, about 40 minutes after leaving the Indonesian city of Surabaya en route to Singapore. Till Monday, there were no signs of the missing plane. The story of AirAsia flight QZ8501 sounds remarkably similar to that of Malaysia Airlines MH370, which remains missing nearly 10 months after it disappeared from radar screens on a flight between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Beijing.
The crucial black box of the doomed AirAsia jet was on Sunday found in the Java Sea stuck under the debris from the plane's fuselage and will be retrieved on Monday as the major breakthrough in the search raised hopes of unravelling the mystery of the crash soon.
Divers on Monday retrieved the crucial flight data recorder of the AirAsia plane from the Java Sea in a potential breakthrough to solve the mystery of the crash, as an Indonesian official said the jet 'exploded' on impact with the water due to rapid change in pressure.
15 images from events that shaped last week's headlines.
AirAsia's India plans may not be hit with the current crisis that the airline is going through
The AirAsia aircraft that went missing after taking off from Indonesia with 162 people on board may be at the bottom of the sea, a top Indonesian official said on Monday, as the multinational search for the Airbus continued amid fading hopes of finding any survivors.
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