The search for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 carrying 162 people in the Indonesian waters met a dead end on Monday.
AirAsia India was set up as a three-way joint venture.
Even as hope faded for the family of the pilot flying the missing AirAsia plane, a despairing message came from his daughter.
After three days of intense search, debris of the missing AirAsia aircraft carrying 162 people was found on Tuesday in the Java Sea off Indonesia but only three bodies have been retrieved so far as the mystery remained over the cause of the crash.
The multinational search for the missing AirAsia flight entered the third day on Tuesday after a futile day-long scanning of the JavaSea where the Airbus 320-200 is believed to have gone down with 162 passengers and crew.
Amid reports of sighting of more debris by a Russian search team, divers on Tuesday recovered two more bodies from choppy waters in the JavaSea, though there was still no trace of the crucial black box of the crashed AirAsia aircraft that crashed nine days ago.
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.
An AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people aboard reportedly went missing on Sunday morning after losing contact with air traffic controllers.
The sister of Remi Plesel, the French co-pilot of the doomed AirAsia flight QZ8501, said that aviation was his passion.
AirAsia on Sunday changed its bright fiery red logo to gray on its Twitter and Facebook pages after its aircraft, carrying 162 people, went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore.
Doomed AirAsia jet's fuselage was found on Wednesday raising hopes of retrieving the remaining bodies of the 162 people killed in the tragedy, as investigators downloaded the contents of black box recorders and were likely to crack the crash's mystery soon.
Searchers using sonar equipment on Wednesday located the wreckage of the ill-fated AirAsia plane carrying 162 people at the bottom of the Java Sea off Indonesia, even as bad weather hampered the recovery of many bloated bodies seen floating around the crash site.
Divers were on Saturday sent to investigate underwater pings that may be coming from the flight recorders of the AirAsia plane as efforts continued to retrieve the jet's tail from the bottom of the Java Sea.
Rescuers on Sunday recovered another body and a fifth large object belonging to the doomed AirAsia jet in the JavaSea as they continued to scour the choppy waters for the eighth day.
The first funeral for a victim of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was held on Thursday, as officials vowed an 'all out effort' to recover the other passengers' bodies from the sea.
The tail section of the AirAsia flight that went down more than a week ago was found on Wednesday in the Java Sea, raising hopes that the plane's black boxes might soon be recovered to determine the cause of the mysterious crash.
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.
Navy divers on Monday resumed efforts to find more wreckage of the ill-fated AirAsia jet with no signal detected yet from the black box recorders, as rescue teams expanded search eastward to locate large objects of the plane believed to be on the ocean floor.
Rescuers found 30 bodies with 5 of them still strapped to their seats as multi-national teams equipped with sophisticated equipment narrowed the search to a 5 sq km area of the choppy Java Sea where some debris of the ill-fated AirAsia jet have emerged.
Singapore's search operation to locate the debris of the crashed AirAsia plane came to end on Sunday with its ship that found the jet's fuselage in the Java Sea returning back after days of rigorous scouring.
Rescuers hunting for the crashed AirAsia plane on Friday detected 'pings' believed to be from its crucial black box, a top Indonesian official said, raising hopes of unravelling the mystery of the deadly crash.
Two large metal objects have been found in the search for the AirAsia airliner in the JavaSea, Indonesian officials said on Saturday, even as continuing bad weather held back efforts to hunt for the plane's data recorders.
AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes began talks with bankers to take Asia's number one budget airline private after a plunge in its stock price put $200 million worth of loans borrowed against AirAsia's shares at risk.
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.
India has put on standby three ships and a maritime surveillance aircraft for assistance in the search operation after an AirAsia flight with 162 people on board on Sunday went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore after losing contact with air traffic controllers.
Divers on Thursday searched the sunken fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jet in the JavaSea to retrieve the missing bodies of the 162 people killed in the disaster, a day after the main wreck was located in the choppy waters after over two weeks of multi-national hunt.
Investigators said the system that helps control the movement of the aircraft's rudder had a cracked solder joint that malfunctioned four times during the flight.
Initial reports say the pilots had asked for a change in route (it was flying to Singapore) because of adverse weather.
Divers on Tuesday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder and may have located the fuselage of the crashed AirAsia jet in the Java Sea as experts will now use data from the two crucial black box devices to determine the sequence of events that brought the flight down. The cockpit voice recorder, that possesses the last two hours of conversation between the pilots and with air traffic controllers, was found close to where the flight data recorder was recovered from the bottom of the choppy waters on Monday.
Indonesian military divers on Thursday battled strong waves to reach the submerged tail section of the crashed AirAsia Flight QZ8501 in the murky depths of the Java Sea in the hopes of finding the crucial black box.
AirAsia plans to sell 12 planes this year, a move that will bring in around 500 million ringgit ($156 million) in net profit.
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.
15 images from events that shaped last week's headlines.
Flight JT-610, carrying 189 people, was on a scheduled flight from the Indonesian capital to Pangkal Pinang, the main city in the Bangka Belitung Islands.
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that mysteriously disappeared with 239 people on board nearly a year ago was deliberately taken off course by someone in the cockpit and flown towards Antarctica, experts have claimed.
We bring you a collection of some of the best photographs taken last week by ace Reuters photogs.
