AirAsia Surabaya – Singapore flight: What happened to the missing flight?

AorAOs
AorAOs
Avatar of Linda Hohnholz
Written by Linda Hohnholz

Tourists and local travelers love AirAsia for its low fares, safety, and reliability. AirAsia today changed its bright red logo to grey on the companies social media accounts.

Tourists and local travelers love AirAsia for its low fares, safety, and reliability. AirAsia today changed its bright red logo to grey on the companies social media accounts.

AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been missing for more than six hours now, AP reports. It is not clear where the plane is, but Indonesian officials said it would not be able to be in the air at this point, and they believe it went missing between Tanjung Pandan and Pontianak. Officials say the pilot had asked if it could go higher from 32,000 feet to 34,000 feet after reporting clouds. An official said there was no distress signal.

Airbus says it has “been informed of an event and all efforts are now going towards assessing the situation” after news that the hAirAsia plane lost contact following takeoff.

AirAsia Jakarta’s emergency call center for information on missing flight QZ8501 from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore is +62-21-29850801.

AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes tweets “Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We must stay strong.” AirAsia says the missing Airbus A320-200 had undergone scheduled maintenance on November 16.

Local media reports that airplane wreckage was found east of Indonesia’s Belitung Island. There is no confirmation any wreckage was found or that it is the missing AirAsia plane.

Airport official says 16 children and 1 infant were on board the missing AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore.

Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ 8501 from Surabaya, East Java, to Singapore was reported missing on Sunday morning, Transportation Ministry Official Hadi Mustofa said.

The aircraft with 157 people on board, including 1 British, 1 Malaysian, 1 Singaporean, and 3 Koreans, lost contact with air traffic control at around 6:17 a.m. local time.

AirAsia now says 1 passenger on the missing flight from Indonesia to Singapore was from France, 156 were from Indonesia.

The plane is reported to have requested an unusual route before it lost contact.

Singapore activated the air force and navy to search for the missing AIrAsia jet, officials said.

At the White House, US President Obama has been briefed on the missing AirAsia flight; “officials will continue to monitor the situation” was the statement issued so far.

A Surabaya, Indonesia, airport official said the missing AirAsia plane had 155 passengers, 6 crew on board, including 3 South Koreans and 1 each from Singapore, UK, and Malaysia; other passengers were Indonesians.

The Captain in command of this AirAsia flight had a total of 6,100 flying hours, and the 1st officer had a total of 2,275 flying hours, AirAsia said.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Share to...