Airlines must work together for safer skies

Evoking memories of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, an AirAsia plane with 155 passengers and seven crew on board lost contact with the ground on Sunday morning after the pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. Search and rescue operations are now underway.

While the fate of the plane and those on board still unknown, the two flights do have one point in common: the delay in releasing information. MH370 lost contact after 1:20 am local time, yet Malaysia Airlines did not respond until four hours later. The last communication with QZ8501 was at 6:17 am, yet the first news that it was missing was not released until four hours later.

The Malaysian government, under pressure, vowed to investigate why there was a delay in releasing the news about MH370; yet no explanation has been forthcoming as yet. Later, AirAsia will also need to explain their delay in releasing the information.