Air traffic controllers lose contact with AirAsia plane

A file photo of an AirAsia Airbus A320. Wikimedia Commons/File

Last Updated Dec 28, 2014 12:38 AM EST

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- An AirAsia plane with 162 people aboard lost contact with ground control on Sunday after takeoff from Indonesia on the way to Singapore, and search and rescue operations were underway.
Flight QZ8501 lost communication with Jakarta's air traffic control at 7:24 a.m. Singapore time (2324 GMT Saturday), about an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore, the Singapore Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
The contact was lost about 42 minutes after the Airbus A320-200 took off from Indonesia's Surabaya airport, Hadi Mustofa, an official of the transportation ministry told Indonesia's MetroTV.
"At this time, search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service," the airline said in a statement, adding that a hotline had been established for people who believed their loved ones may have been on board.
The plane had seven crew members and 155 passengers on board, including 16 children and one infant, AirAsia said. There were five foreigners among the passengers and crew -- three South Koreans, including an infant, one person from Singapore and one from Malaysia. The rest were Indonesians.
"The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to enroute weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian Air Traffic Control (ATC)," the airline said.
The plane lost contact when it was believed to be over the Java Sea between Kalimantan and Java islands, Mustofa said. He said the weather in the area was cloudy.
The Singapore aviation authority said it was informed about the missing plane by Jakarta ground control about half an hour after the contact was lost.
"Search and rescue operations have been activated by the Indonesian authorities," it said, adding that the Singapore air force and the navy also were activated with two C-130 planes.
Malaysia-based AirAsia, a regional low-cost carrier with presence in several Southeast Asian countries, said the aircraft underwent scheduled maintenance on November 16. The airline has never lost a plane before.
"The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours," the airline said.
White House spokesperson Eric Schultz told CBS News that President Obama "has been briefed on AirAsia Flight 8501 and White House officials will continue to monitor the situation."
If has been a difficult year for the Malaysian aviation industry.
On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Four months later, on July 17, 298 passengers and crew died when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Eastern Ukraine. Dutch air crash investigators said in September the plane was likely struck by multiple "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft," which some aviation experts say is consistent with a strike by a missile.

CBSNEWS