SCMP this morning 0804020115:
Analysts have claimed the pilot of the crashed AirAsia flight may have made an emergency water landing, only for the plane to be overcome by high seas.
The A320-200 left Surabaya, Indonesia early on Sunday and disappeared from radar over the Java Sea during a storm, but it failed to send the transmissions normally emitted when a plane crashes or is submerged.
As search teams battled poor weather in the hunt for the black boxes, experts said the lack of transmissions suggested the experienced former air force pilot, Captain Iriyanto, conducted an emergency water landing that did not destroy the plane.
"The emergency locator transmitter would work on impact, be that land, sea or the sides of a mountain, and my analysis is it didn't work because there was no major impact during landing," said Dudi Sudibyo, of aviation magazine
Angkasa.
"The pilot managed to land it on the sea's surface," he added.
The plane, carrying 162 people to Singapore, was at 10,000 metres when the pilot requested a course change to avoid storms.
Although permission was granted to turn left, the pilot was not immediately allowed to ascend owing to heavy air traffic, and the plane disappeared from radar soon afterwards. Indonesia's search team scoured the sea for more than 48 hours before the first debris was spotted off the island of Borneo after a tip-off from fishermen.
So far, the search team has found eight bodies, but air safety officials said it could take a week to find the crucial black-box recorders.
An emergency-exit door and an inflatable slide were among the first items recovered by the search team, suggesting the first passengers may have started the evacuation process once the plane landed on water.
Coupled with the leaked radar evidence of rapid climb followed by rapid descent and the non-wearing of life jackets by recovered victims, I find this possibility unlikely.