AirAsia flight QZ8501 missing with 162 on board

The Airplane is said to have taken off from Surabaya and heading to Singapore before it lost contact. Search and rescue operation is underway.

The Plane is Airbus A320-200 flight 8501 belonging to Indonesian Air Asia. The authorities said the plane disappeared from the radar shortly after take off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya en route Singapore.

Before communication was lost, AirAsia Flight QZ 8501 asked to deviate from its planned flight route — from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore — because of weather conditions, AirAsia said in a statement.

Flight 8501 went missing at 7:24 a.m. Sunday (7:24 p.m. Saturday ET), nearly two hours after takeoff, as it flew over the Java Sea. From flight tracking websites, almost the entire flight path appears to be over the sea.

“At this time, search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority,” AirAsia said.
Of the people on board the Airbus A320-200, 156 are Indonesian, three are South Korean, one is French, one is Malaysian and one is Singaporean, the airline said.

Seventeen children, including one infant, are among the passengers, the carrier said. Seven of the people on board are crew members.

Updates: There is no news yet about the where about of the missing plane flight QZ8501 belonging to AirAsia.

There was said to be extreme weather which might prompted the pilot to raise the altitude, and this is believed to have contributed to the loss of radar communication. The plane took off 5:35 on Sunday. Below is the flight map

Here are the picture of the plane and some of the relatives of the passengers on board the missing airline.