An AirAsia Indonesia plane flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 passengers on board has officially been declared missing.
Flight QZ8501 lost contact with the air traffic control at around 23:20 GMT which is about 10. 30 pm Nigerian time over the Java Sea. The Java sea lies within the Indonesian islands.
According to CNN, The plane, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared midway into the flight of more than two hours from the city of Surabaya. The Indonesian transport ministry said the crew had requested to climb to 11,000 metres to avoid bad weather, however no distress signal was sent.
A search and rescue operation has already been launched by the Indonesian air force. Also, neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Singapore have offered to help find the missing jet.
In a statement released by Air Asia, the airline said most of those on board are Indonesian, but there are also three South Koreans, and one each from France, Malaysia and Singapore.
They also said that the captain in command has 6,100 hours of flying time and the first officer almost 2,800 hours. According to Euro news, the aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.
The friends, families and loves ones of the passengers were already gathered at the airport waiting before they got the sad information. However, the airport officials are trying their best to keep away from the media and to make them comfortable.
AirAsia, is a budget airline which owns 49% of AirAsia Indonesia. It is based in Malaysia and has never lost a plane. 2014 has generally been a difficult year for aviation in Asia: Malaysia’s national carrier Malaysia Airlines has suffered two losses – flights MH370 and MH17.
