Sunday 28 December 2014

Indonesia halts search for missing AirAsia plane as night falls

 Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore.

Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. (2317 GMT on Saturday). No distress signal had been sent, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, an Indonesian transport ministry official.

On board were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain, plus a French pilot, the airline said in a statement, correcting earlier information.

Tatang Kurniadi, head of Indonesia's National Committee of Safety Transportation, expressed hope of locating the aircraft quickly and said it was too early to detect any of the so-called electronic pings from its black box recorder.

"We are using our capacity to search on sea and land. Hopefully we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible," he told a news conference.

"What I need to emphasize is until now, we have not found out how the plane fell or what kind of emergency it was."

Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia (AIRA.KL), which has had a clean safety record since it began operating 13 years ago. The AirAsia group also has affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India. The aircraft had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, according to Airbus (AIR.PA).

The pilots of QZ8501 "was requesting deviation due to en-route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said in a statement. Singapore, Malaysia, Britain, South Korea and Australia offered to help in the search and any investigation. Malaysia said it was sending vessels and a C130 aircraft while Singapore had also sent a C130. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a P3 Orion aircraft was on standby if needed.

ANXIOUS RELATIVES

Flight QZ8501 was between Tanjung Pandan on Indonesia's Belitung island and Pontianak, in West Kalimantan province on Borneo - almost halfway between Surabaya and Singapore - when it went missing. There was bad weather over Belitung at the time and the aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet before asking to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds.

In both Surabaya and Singapore, anxious relatives of people on the plane awaited news.

Louise Sidharta was at Singapore's Changi Airport waiting for her fiancée to return from a family holiday.

"It was supposed to be their last vacation before we got married," she said.

A man named Purnomo told TVOne in Surabaya of a lucky escape.

"I should have been on the flight," he said. "We, seven people, had planned to go to Singapore for vacation but this morning I had an emergency. I had my passport in hand."

Tony Fernandes, chief of Malaysia's AirAsia, said he was heading to Surabaya.

"My only thoughts are with the passengers and my crew. We put our hope in the SAR (search and rescue) operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," he said on Twitter.

AirAsia swapped its distinctive bright red logo for a grey background on its website and social media accounts.

The incident comes during a troubled year for Malaysia-affiliated airlines. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found.

On July 17, Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Indonesia AirAsia has a fleet of 30 Airbus A320s. The missing plane has been in service for just over six years, according to airfleets.net.

All AirAsia-branded airlines operate aircraft made by Airbus, which has orders for several hundred planes from the group. AirAsia is considered one of the European planemaker's most important customers.

Wednesday 11 June 2014

Fashion Focus Deepika Padukone by numbers

Prasad Naik/Vogue
Deepika Padukone is used to racking up more than just box office numbers.

Our June 2014 cover star is used to multiple digits. She does, after all, have a habit of racking up box office figures like they're numbers on a pedometer (Chennai Express made approximately Rs 227 crore, making it the second-highest earner of 2013). 
 
We track her best scores so far:
 

11 months

The age at which Deepika moved to Bengaluru. She was born in Copenhagen.

20 years

The age at which she made her debut with the Kannada film Aishwarya (2006)

6.32 million

Followers on Twitter

3,07,807 

Instagram followers

100 fan pages on Facebook

Her official fan page has 18,310,524 'likes'

15 years

The age till which she was a state-level badminton player

149 crores

The global revenue her Bollywood debut, Om Shanti Om, made, making it the highest grosser of 2007

Thursday 4 October 2007

Paris Fashion Week Spring - Summer 2008

More of it -

I really like Viktor & Rolf for their surreal artistic and concept driven collections. Although the dazzling theatricality the duo is expected of was toned down this time, the collection did not fall short of a "wow". The collection ran along the theme of Harlequin Romance. Opening with whites and monochromes to then slow injection of color. Stunning I tell you.





Lagerfeld collection was as you would expect, with a little more mystery adding to the unexpected sexiness of the ensembles. There were fifties dresses, sheers covering the arm, sleeveless billowy blouses, fitted jackets...and some almost jersey like fabric draped..One thing that will catch your attention is the sheerness of pieces and the thought of it seems so teasing to the skin.





I was just at the store the other day, looking at the Halloween costumes, and I commented on the pirate's costume, its so banal, ever since the Black Pearl floated into our mind's currents, the forgotten lot of pirates has been under the flashlight. But that won't stop me from going and watching the next Jack Sparrow movie (if it comes out) and similarly though the theme seems overused Jean Paul Gaultier went all the way with his collection - having fun I presume.



Tuesday 2 October 2007

Paris Fashion Week Spring - Summer 2008

So now Paris is Fashion struck (Is there any time it isn't?). Well what I mean is, the shows have moved over to the fashion capital, and three days into the week, here's what has been offered so far.
Let's begin with ma première passion, Galliano for Dior. Forget for a moment you saw the grand Dior 60Th anniversary collection, even then, from the couture crazed master, what you would, I would, anybody would expect, is a magnanimous show, with enormous proportions skillfully tailored into extended designs, and lots of drama of course. That's Galliano. But there was a surprise element this time. The collection was actually down to earth, I am telling you. Call it the taming of l'enfant sauvage, but he really managed to present a stunning collection without the mad child element.






Okay let me not glorify him anymore, and discuss the collection instead. The theme was Sting's "Englishman in New York" which Galliano beautifully interpreted though old school glamour, revival of the twenties through forties styling, complete with pinstripe pantsuits and cabaret styled lingerie dressing. There was shimmer, there was shine, there was definite glamour; there was chiffon, charmeuse, beautiful draping, shoulder pads (ek!), sequins, lippy cat print, embroidered jackets, suspenders....too many elements, tied together to fit just right.

Yohji Yamamoto's collection would have better fit a fall/winter category - all black with some silver, and a little bright florals- is not what you want to see on a spring collection that is to follow a grey winter. I am not, by any means, saying he is not a genius. He ranks pretty high in my personal list of creative designers that are out there, But this collection didn't do much justice to his génie. The theme was overused, feminine cross masculine. And although the collection fell short of my expectations, I cannot, not praise the shaping, texture and proportions he showcased. There were lethargic jumpsuits and full bodied hoop skirts, with draped dresses flowing in between the gaps. There definitely were a few admirable pieces in there - admirable not for the we arability but for the construction and design.



I understand the whole "future is now" thing fashion has been gyrating towards. But even with that I have difficulty understanding Balenciaga's collection. Okay I confess, I did like the whole beetle armoured outfits at first, and a few prints were just fascinating. So I was expecting a whole morphing to take place to complete the collection. Instead, the bettles paraded, one after the other, in what seemed like the same design, in different prints and colors. And in the end they morphed into robotic figures (again the duplicates in various colors). My interest was hinged on the architectural structuring and the construction of the fabrics that are otherwise used to drape feminine curves.




Vivienne Westwood's collection is named 56 (after the number of days the British Labour government proposes to hold terror suspects in jail without trial), although I think, a better name for it would have been "from the curiosity closet onto the runway". What happens when the inspiration of a collection comes from various unrelated sources? It results in a clueless untied collection. But it indeed was an interesting and beautiful mess (as tagged by style.com). There was an array of colors, fabrics, patterns, and design elements; all loosely packed to resemble borrowed fairytale figures. It was crazy but fun, and c'mon that's what we expect of her, don't we?



Monday 24 September 2007

Trend Report - Fall Winter 2007 - Sock it!

We all know Prada is the leader behind setting trends. Prada is the most copied brand, and hence the trends it resorts to, almost always trickles down to other brands and mass manufactured labels.

If you look at the Prada ad campaigns for this fall, you'll realise the leggings have died their timely death and made way for the new footless socks. My first reaction was "Yikes!". (the whole leg warmish socks with heels trends - what do you expect).

But it will grow on you, it has to, after all it is a "Now" trend, we will all put a sock on. (Remember how horrified we were of the 80's but then we did dress like circus jacks in oversized brights and graphic leggings - Right).

So be bold and try the look. They come in gorgeous colors from lilac to powder yellow, black to blue, and they are sure to add that punch you will be craving for, after putting on your grey dress.

Thursday 20 September 2007

New York fashion week summary

Marc Jacob -

had a surprise in store for the world. Now you usually imagine MJ to come up with a sophisticated and glamorous collection, something cute appealing and clean cut. But he managed to break the stereotype with his spring collection and I was surprised (not sure if it was pleasant).

There was a lot of deconstruction, a lot of "sexy" (or supposedly ) "sexy' outfits, a lot of skin baring with slitted skirts and short tops and some crazy underwear cropping up through the outfits. I'm not sure of my reactions to the collection, but there were a couple of good pieces here and there, so well....
Narcisco Rodriguez -
Now there was a collection true to its designer. It was clean cut, structured and oh so flattering. (a non linear note to myself #A lot of sequins are showing up on the runway for spring, its shimmer time , well that it sure is)


Phillip Lim -
Nobody understands better what the modern girls are looking for, than Phillip Lim. The clothes are so happy, cool, chic, youthful, modern and pretty (with a lot of underlying funk). I like!!!
Zac Posen -
"Days of heaven, the shakers and the wheat fields of the great plains" - ah where do I begin. It was an interesting collection, although some outfits looked a little too literal (with the hay bundled together), but overall the collection flowed with a breezy ephemeral soft look. The dresses were gorgeous, romantic, ruffled...and artistic. Do have a look.


Doo Ri -
If you like the look of well cut, extremely well draped, feminine dresses, Check out Doo Ri's collection for Spring. A simple color palette, and few gorgeous pieces.