(Breaking) AirAsia Flight 8501 Indonesia Singapore Missing With 162 On Board.
In the third of its kind occurrence linked to airlines from Malaysia, AirAsia Flight 8501 of Malaysia flying from Indonesia to Singapore has gone missing. 162 people are on board including 7 crew. According to reports the Flight QZ8501 lost contact with Indonesian traffic control at local time 06:20 as it was flying over the Java Sea, 320,000 kilometers of vast waters.
At the time, the flight was was forty-two minutes into the flight. The passengers were mostly Indonesian flying from Surabaya to Changi Airport in Singapore. An investigation is expected to continue into the next couple of days at least. However, Indonesia has announced that it would halt search and rescue operations 30 minutes in due to bad weather and night time conditions.
"Planes from Indonesia and Singapore had been scouring an area of sea between Kalimantan (Borneo) and Java. Some boats are reported to be continuing to search as night falls...No wreckage has been found,' reported Indonesian officials in a BBC online report.
It was also reported that the jet had made a request for a 'deviation' as a result of storm clouds, according to AirAsia, adding the "Indonesia's transport ministry said the pilot had asked permission to climb to 38,000 ft (11,000m) to avoid thick cloud," BBC News reported.
A budget airline based in Malaysia, the carrier owns almost half of AirAsia Indonesia. This is the first time AirAsia has lost a plane. However, in 2014 Malaysia Airlines lost two flights - the MH370, which went missing over the southern Indian Ocean with 239 passengers and crew. and the MH17 was shot down over Ukraine kill 298 passengers and crew.
A BBC News report said, "The AirAsia incident comes at the end of a difficult year for air travelers in the region, and the scenes at Changi airport today are reminiscent of those in Kuala Lumpur immediately after MH370 went missing in March: anxious relatives waiting for any news on their loves ones, a media frenzy, but no answers."
