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Indonesia to Singapore AirAsia flight loses contact with air traffic control Indonesia to Singapore AirAsia flight missing
(about 2 hours later)
An AirAsia flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control. An AirAsia plane travelling from Indonesia to Singapore with over 160 people on board has lost contact with air traffic control while flying over the Java Sea.
Transport ministry official Hadi Mustofa told Indonesian media the aircraft, flight number QZ 8501, lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6.17am local time (2317 GMT). Search and rescue operations are under way after flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200 that departed from the Indonesian city of Surabaya, went missing.
The aircraft was said to be an Airbus 320-200 with 155 people on board. The flight lost communication with Jakarta’s air traffic control at 7.24am Singapore time (2324 GMT Saturday) about an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore, the Singapore Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
Indonesian media said 149 Indonesians, three people from Korea, and one from Singapore, Britain and Malaysia were on board. The contact was lost about 42 minutes after the single-aisle jetliner took off from Indonesia’s Surabaya airport, Hadi Mustofa, an official of the transportation ministry told Indonesia’s MetroTV.
Mustofa said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact. The plane had six crew and 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, according to the general manager of Surabaya’s Juanda airport, Trikora Raharjo.
AirAsia released a statement confirming the plane was missing. It said: “AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07.24hrs this morning. He said there were six foreigners: three South Koreans including an infant and one each from Singapore, Britain and Malaysia. The rest were Indonesians, he said.
“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. AirAsia, on the other hand, said in a statement there were seven crew and that there were no Britons on board.
“The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. 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.
“At this time, search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is co-operating fully and assisting the rescue service. The Singapore statement said search and rescue operations had been activated by the Indonesian authorities. It said the Singapore air force and the navy also were searching with two C-130 planes.
“AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre that is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft. The number is: +622129850801. 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 32,000ft (9,700 meters), the regular cruising altitude for most jetliners, when the signal from the plane was lost.
AirAsia will release further information as soon as it becomes available. Updated information will also be posted on the AirAsia website.” The Malaysia-based AirAsia, which has dominated cheap travel in the region for years, has never lost a plane before.
This is the third major air incident for south-east Asia this year. On 8 March, Malaysia Airlines flight 370, a wide-bodied Boeing 777, went missing soon after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. It remains missing until this day with 239 people in one of the biggest aviation mysteries.
Another Malaysia Airlines flight, also a Boeing 777, was shot down over rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine while on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on 17 July. A total of 298 people on board were killed.