AirAsia Flight QZ8501 From Surabaya Indonesia to Singapore Loses Contact With Air Traffic Control on 28 December 2014

AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 07:24hrs this morning (28-December-2014).

The Plane was carrying 7 Crew, 155 Passengers, including 138 adults, 16 Children and 1 Baby: Air Asia

An AirAsia plane travelling from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday morning. QZ 8501 has 155 passengers and 7 crew on board, including one Singaporean, one British, one Malaysian, three Koreans and 149 Indonesians, according to Indonesia's Transport Ministry.

The pilot of the missing AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 had asked to fly at higher altituide to avoid clouds, said an Indonesian official. 

Reporting Nationalities of pass. on #QZ8501

149 Indonesians
3 South Koreans
1 Singaporean
1 UK citizen 
1 Malaysian

"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 320-200 took off from Surabaya at 5.20 am local time on Sunday and was scheduled to land at Changi Airport at 8.30 am Singapore time.

Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa Djuraid told Metro TV that the plane lost contact somewhere between Kalimantan and Belitung island. He added that the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact, but he did not elaborate.

"The weather was not good - it was bad -- at the estimated location the plane lost contact. We just received a weather report from the national meteorological, geophysics and climatology agency," said Hadi.

Mr Tatang Zainudin of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency also told MetroTV that the pilot might have faced extreme weather condition.

AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre for family or friends of those who may have been on board the flight.

The number is +622 129 850 801

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.