An Air Asia plane traveling from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Indonesia’s Metro TV reported on Sunday.
QZ 8501 had seven crew and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, the general manager of Surabaya’s Juanda airport, Trikora Raharjo, told The Associated Press.
There were six foreigners — three South Koreans including an infant and one each from Singapore, British and Malaysia, said Raharjo. The rest were Indonesians, he said.
“AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 hrs this morning,” said an airline statement.
“At the present time, we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board.”
“Search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service,” said the airline.
The Airbus 320-20 took off from Surabaya at 5:20 a.m. local time on Sunday and was scheduled to land at Changi Airport at 8:30 a.m., according to Metro TV.
The plane lost communication with Jakarta’s air traffic control at 7:24 a.m., about an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore, the Singapore Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The contact was lost about 42 minutes after takeoff from Indonesia’s Surabaya airport, Hadi Mustofa, an official of the transportation ministry told Indonesia’s MetroTV.
The plane lost contact when it was believed to be over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java islands, Mustofa said.
He said the weather in the area was cloudy.
Tatang Zainudin of Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency told MetroTV that the pilot might have faced extreme weather condition.
Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, said the plane was delivered in September 2008, which would make it six years old. It said the plane was flying at 32,000 feet (9,700 meters), the regular cruising altitude for most jetliners, when the signal from the plane was lost
He said the weather in the area was cloudy.
The Singapore aviation authority said it was informed about the missing plane by Jakarta ground control about half an hour after the contact was lost.
“Search and rescue operations have been activated by the Indonesian authorities,” it said, adding that the Singapore air force and the navy also were activated with two C-130 planes.
AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Center for family or friends of those who may have been on board the flight. The number is +622 129850801.
The incident comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysia’s airlines. National flag carrier Malaysia Airlines lost two aircraft this year. Its flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board.
On July 17, Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
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