An AirAsia flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore has
lost contact with air traffic control after take-off, the airline has said, as
a search-and-rescue operation kicked off in the third air incident connected to
Malaysia's aviation industry.
AirAsia, a regional low-cost carrier with presence in
several Southeast Asian countries, said in a statement that the missing
plane was an Airbus A320-200 with 162 people on board, and was supposed to land
in Singapore at 8:30am local time on Sunday. Flight QZ8501 was carrying 155
passengers, most of them Indonesians, AirAsia said in a statement. Sixteen
children and one infant were among the passengers. The plane had an Indonesian
captain and a French co-pilot and five cabin crew.
"At the present time we unfortunately have no further
information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board,
but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes
available," the Malaysia-based airline said in a statement on Facebook.
The statement added that the pilots requested
"deviation due to en route weather before communication with the aircraft
was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian Air Traffic
Control [ATC]".
The airline said it had established an emergency call centre
for family or friends of those who were travelling on the aircraft.
There was no distress signal from the cockpit when the plane
disappeared from radar, Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general
of transportation, told reporters.
AirAsia had a good safety track record and had never lost a
plane before.
The aircraft lost contact with the Jakarta air
traffic control tower at 6:17am (2317 GMT) local time, Hadi
Mustofa, Indonesia's transport ministry official, told reporters.
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