Air Asia flight from Indonesia to Singapore 'goes missing': reports

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Air Asia flight from Indonesia to Singapore 'goes missing': reports

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 28 December, 2014, 11:32am
UPDATED : Sunday, 28 December, 2014, 11:59am

Reuters and Staff Reporter

Photo: SCMP Pictures

An Air Asia flight is reportedly missing after losing contact with air traffic control while travelling in Indonesian airspace, according to reports.

Flight QZ 8501 had taken off from Surabaya at 5.35am today, but lost contact about an hour into the journey, the reports said.

The flight was bound for Singapore. Initial reports suggested the Airbus A320-200 was carrying more than 150 passengers.

Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa said the aircraft lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6.17am local time.

He said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact.

Mustofa said there were 151 people on the flight, but Indonesian media reports put the figure at 161 - including six crew members. There were also 17 children onboard, including one infant, the TV and online reports said.

The flight had been due in Singapore at 8.30am. The Singapore airport said on its website the status of the flight was "delayed".

The development comes just 10 months after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, in one of the worst airline disasters in recent history.

The Boeing 777-200ER from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing had lost contact with air control and went missing more than a hour after it took off in the early hours of March 8.

The incident triggered an unprecedented international search and rescue operation that spanned from the southern Indian Ocean to Central Asia and involved more than two dozen countries.

Investigators later concluded that the plane had crashed in the ocean.

Air Asia said this morning it was investigating what happened to Flight QZ 8501.