An AirAsia Airbus passenger plane lands at Hong Kong's international airport on Aug. 16, 2011. (Photo: Laurent Fievet, AFP/Getty ...
An AirAsia Airbus passenger plane lands at Hong Kong's international airport on Aug. 16, 2011.(Photo: Laurent Fievet, AFP/Getty
A relative of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 passengers weeps as she waits for the latest news on the missing jetliner at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, Dec. 28, 2014.
A jet flying from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore with 162 people aboard lost contact with air traffic control about an hour before it was to land and is missing, AirAsia Indonesia officials said Sunday.
Flight QZ8501 took off at about 5:35 a.m. Sunday local time from Juanda International Airport and lost contact with air traffic control at about 7:24 a.m., the airline said on its Facebook page. The time in Surabaya is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time; Singapore is 13 hours ahead of ET.
"We don't dare to presume what has happened except that it has lost contact." Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, told reporters. He said the last contact between pilot and the air traffic control was at 6.13 a.m. local time when the pilot asked to avoid a cloud bank by turning left and go higher to 34,000 feet.
Flight QZ8501 gave no distress signal, he said.
The contact was lost about 42 minutes after takeoff from Surabaya airport, Hadi Mustofa, an official of the transportation ministry told Indonesia's MetroTV.
The crew of the Airbus A320-200 included two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer, according to flight documents.
The captain, identified in those documents as Capt. Iriyanto, had a total of 6,100 flying hours. The first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours, said AirAsia, a low-cost regional airline, based in Sepang, Malaysia, near Kuala Lumpur.
The airline said the plane carried 155 passengers, including 138 adults, 16 children and an infant. Most of the passengers are Indonesian nationals, but the airline also identified one passenger from Singapore, one passenger from Malaysia, one passenger from France and three from South Korea.
"The president has been briefed on AirAsia Flight 8501, and White House officials will continue to monitor the situation," White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters.
Media on Belitung island, about halfway between Surabaya and Singapore, are reporting that authorities have found the wreckage.
The Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC had its last scheduled maintenance Nov. 16, airline officials said. Search and rescue operations are under way.
The Singapore aviation authority said Jakarta ground control was informed it about the missing plane by about half an hour after 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, which has dominated cheap travel in the region for years, has never lost a plane before.
• On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, a wide-bodied Boeing 777, went missing soon after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing. It remains missing with 239 people in one of the biggest aviation mysteries.
• On July 17, 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. A total of 298 people on board were killed.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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