Air Asia’s passenger aircraft QZ8501, travelling from Indonesia to Singapore lost contact with Air Traffic Control early Sunday morning. The flight lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6:17am. Indonesian Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa told the press that the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact.
According to flight tracking service Flight Radar 24, Air Asia flight QZ8501 was flying 32000 feet over Java Sea when ADS-B signal was lost.
A statement issued by the airlines said, “Air Asia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24hrs this morning.” It further said, “At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available.”
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC.
The flight has 162 people on board, including 7 crew members. There were two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer on board.
Air Asia said that it was fully cooperating with the search and rescue operations being conducted under the guidance of The Indonesia of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
In an updated statement Air Asia confirmed that 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 airlines conducted a press conference the Juanda International Airport. Djoko Atmojo, acting director general of transportation said that the last position of the flight was between Tanjung Pandan and Pontianak.
For concerned friends and family members of all those who may have been on the plane, Air Asia has established an Emergency Call Center, the number of which is +622129850801.
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