Airplane with 162 aboard goes missing

The Air Asia flight is said to have taken off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya and was heading to Singapore when it lost contact with air traffic control early today, December 28


An airplane with 162 people on board has gone missing in Indonesia, the country’s Metro TV station reports.

The Air Asia flight is said to have taken off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya and was heading to Singapore when it lost contact with air traffic control early today, December 28.

According to an official of Indonesia’s Transport Ministry, Hadi Mustofa the aircraft, flight number QZ 8501, lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6:17 am local time.

Mustofa also said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact, Voice of America reports.

The missing flight was due for arrival in Singapore at 8:30 am Singapore time (0030 UTC).