By Santanu Choudhury
NEW DELHI--India has put on standby three warships and a
maritime patrol aircraft to join in the search for the missing
Flight 8501 of AirAsia Bhd.
The Airbus A320-200 aircraft, belonging to AirAsia's Indonesia
affiliate, disappeared early Sunday while carrying 162 people and
bound for Singapore. It lost contact with air-traffic control less
than an hour after takeoff from Surabaya, Indonesia, shortly after
the pilots sought permission to climb to a higher altitude to avoid
bad weather, officials said.
An official in the Indian Navy said two warships in the Andaman
Sea and one in the Bay of Bengal have been put on standby. A Boeing
Co.-made P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine
warfare plane is also on standby.
"We are ready to participate in any search-and-rescue efforts
for the missing plane," the official said. "Being one of the few
credible navies in this region, search-and-rescue is one of the
roles we have been mandated to do."
Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia have deployed ships and planes
in the search for the missing AirAsia plane.
The Indian Navy had previously lent its ships and planes in the
search for the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared
this past March. India is the only country, aside from the U.S., to
own the P-8I, which has state-of-the-art sensors and radars. The
P-8I is based on Boeing's 737-800 passenger jet.
Write to Santanu Choudhury at santanu.choudhury@wsj.com
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