AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 to Singapore missing

[wendy]

The BBC's Karishma Vaswani: "Some Indonesian transport officials have been saying it requested a different route"

An AirAsia Indonesia airliner flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board has lost contact with air traffic control.

Flight QZ8501 went missing at 07:24 (23:24 GMT), AirAsia tweeted.

The plane, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared midway into the flight of more than two hours and no distress call was issued.

Indonesian military planes and aircraft from Singapore are searching an area of the Java Sea.

The flight left the Indonesian city of Surabaya in eastern Java at 05:20 local time (22:20 GMT) and was due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 (00:30 GMT).

The missing jet had requested a "deviation" from the flight path due to bad weather, AirAsia said.

Indonesia's transport ministry said the pilot had asked permission to climb to 38,000 ft (11,000m) to avoid thick cloud.

AirAsia, a budget airline which owns 49% of AirAsia Indonesia, is based in Malaysia and has never lost a plane.

However, 2014 has been a difficult year for aviation in Asia: Malaysia's national carrier Malaysia Airlines has suffered two losses - flights MH370 and MH17.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-30614627 ca99

[maureenho]

This is very worrying, my brother in law and his partner flew from Heathrow yesterday evening to Singapore on the way to Australia and then Tasmania.

ca99

[wendy]

I never thought of them Maureen, we also have some close friends travelling to Australia.
Chris's partner and with both children.
You may remember Chris is the son who died of a stroke of Wendy and Peter, members in Chill.
I hope all will be well.

[annie]

Hope you receive news that they are ok Mo
ca99

[maureenho]

They are going to let us know when they arrive in Tasmania, their 3 flight journey is taking 28 hours.
They would have probably arrived at Singapore airport when people were waiting to meet the flight that didn't arrive. must be awful.

ca99

[daisy]

ca99

Hope you find out soon that they are safe. Yet another tragic event in 2014

[wendy]

I will let you know when I hear how my friends are.
It will be terrible to be at Singapore airport.
At least we know there is only one Britain on the plane, bless them and thinking of all the passengers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30615389

[wendy]

I have just heard from Wendy.
Her grandchildren take off tomorrow for Singapore airport on their way to Australia.
Singapore airport is a very big one, so hopefully they will not meet the relatives.

[Rosalind]

It is awful, I hope it turns out alright.
ca99

[annie]

It is good that your friends were not on the plane Wendy, hope they eventually land safely

[maureenho]

[Rosalind]

How sad
ca99

[wendy]

This is so sad , I am sorry