On December 28th, 2014, a commercial airliner en route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore crashed into the Java Sea, less than halfway to its destination. The plane, an Airbus A320-200 operated by AirAsia, went down shortly after requesting permission to climb to a higher altitude in order to avoid bad weather. There were 155 passengers and seven crew members on board the plane when it went down.
Initial search and rescue efforts were hampered by heavy rains and poor visibility. …