An AirAsia Airbus with 162 people on board disappeared Sunday morning amid thunderstorms while on way from Indonesia to Singapore, prompting the military to launch a major search that was called off at dusk.
The aircraft took off at 5.20 a.m. (local time) from the Indonesian city of Surabaya and was to land at Singapore's Changi Airport at 8.30 a.m., the low-cost airline owned by an Indian-origin Malaysian and officials said.
Indonesian officials said the pilot sought an unusual route due to thunderstorms between Kalimantan and Belitung island, before the aircraft lost contact with the air traffic control.
The aircraft was then at 32,000 feet over Java Sea in Indonesian territory.
"The weather was not good, it was bad at the estimated location when the plane lost contact," an Indonesian transport ministry official added.
The plane carried 162 passengers and crew on board. These included 138 adults, 16 children, an infant, two pilots and five cabin crew.
AirAsia Indonesia issued a fresh list of the people on board the pasenger jet. The revised list said 149 Indonesians, one Singaporean, one Malaysian, three South Koreans and one Briton were on the flight.
The crew members include one French and six Indonesians, Xinhua reported.
In no time, the air force and navy ships from Indonesia and Singapore launched a major search for the missing plane in the Java sea. Australia too has offered help, and so has Malaysia.
Rescuers suspended their operation at nightfall Sunday. An official with Indonesia's transport ministry said the search will resume Monday.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the plane went off the radar 42 minutes after take-off, The Star newspaper said.
"This means the possibility of something untoward happening to the aircraft," he said in Kuala Lumpur.
According to AirAsia, the captain of the Airbus A320-200 has 6,100 flying hours and the first officer 2,275 flying hours to their credit.
Grieving family members and friends of the passengers thronged the airports at Surabaya, to which most of the passengers belonged, as well as Singapore. Some wept openly.
AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes flew from Malaysia to Surabaya. "My prayers are with the (distraught) families," he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the plane might have crashed.
Kalla, who is leading the search and rescue mission, told a press conference here: "We haven't got any information that indicates where the plane (has) crashed."
Earlier, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiang Lai rubbished claims that wreckage of the aircraft was found in the search area.
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 March 8 en route 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.
AirAsia, which started operations under the present ownership in 2001, flies to 88 destinations. In India, AirAsia's maiden flight took off June 11 from Bengaluru to Panjim.
The Indo-Malaysian joint venture of AirAsia flies to and from Bengaluru, Jaipur, Chennai, Kochi, Chandigarh, Pune and Goa, an airline spokesperson told IANS.
It also flies between Kuala Lumpur and Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu and Kolkata and connects Chennai and Bangkok.
Says the AirAsia web site: "Our commitment to low fares lies in our promise of 'Now Everyone Can Fly'."
"Our service targets guests who can do without the frills of full-service airlines in exchange for low fares."
