Airliner with 162 on board missing

AirAsia flight asked permission to avoid storm, then disappeared

Indonesia is expected to resume the search on Monday for the AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that went missing on Sunday morning, in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year.

About 11 hours after contact with the aircraft was lost en route from Indonesia to Singapore, Indonesian air force jets had not yet found any sign of the Airbus A320-200.

Air traffic controllers lost contact with the twin-engine jet about an hour after it left Juanda International Airport at Surabaya in East Java at 5:20 am.

Shortly before disappearing, AirAsia said, the plane had asked Jakarta air traffic control for permission to deviate from its flight plan and climb above bad weather in an area noted for severe thunderstorms.

The airline said 156 of those on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and France.

Britain later said one of its citizens was on the jet. It was not yet confirmed whether that person has dual nationality.

There were 138 adult passengers, 16 children and an infant, in addition to a cabin crew of five and the pilot and co-pilot, who is believed to be French.

Two Indonesia air force planes and a helicopter were searching the waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, near Kalimantan island.

"We have not been able to visually detect any signs," air force spokesman Hadi Cahyanto said, adding that search boats were still on their way to the area, about halfway along the missing aircraft's expected flight path.

"The weather is quite good. However, we only have a few hours more to go as our fuel will run out. By then it will also get dark ... the planes will have to return to Jakarta," the spokesman said earlier that day.

Director General of Air Transport of the Indonesian Transport Ministry Djoko Murjatmodjo told a news conference at the main airport in Jakarta that Australia, Britain, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia have offered assistance to find the missing plane.

China also offered a plane to help the search operation, said Bambang Sulistyo, head of the national search and rescue agency.

The aircraft was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia, which dominates Southeast Asia's booming low-cost airline market.

AirAsia's flamboyant boss Tony Fernandes, a former record industry executive who acquired the then-failing airline in 2001, said he was on his way to Surabaya, where most of the passengers are from.

"My only thought (s) are with the passengers and my crew," he added on his Twitter page.

With hard details few and far between, panicked relatives gathered at Singapore's Changi Airport.

In Surabaya, hundreds of Indonesians gathered at the terminal, hoping for news of the missing jet.

A 45-year-old woman said she had six family members on the plane.

"They were going to Singapore for a holiday," she said.

"They have always flown with AirAsia, and there was no problem. I am very worried that the plane might have crashed."

The air industry has been blighted by poor safety standards in an area that also experiences extreme weather.

AirAsia said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on Nov 16.

The company has never had a fatal accident.

An official from Indonesia's Transport Ministry said the pilot asked to ascend by 6,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid heavy clouds.

"The plane is in good condition but the weather is not so good," Djoko Murjatmodjo told a news conference at Jakarta's airport, addressing reports of severe storms in the area where the jet went missing.

The plane's disappearance comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, vanished in March after inexplicably diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing course. No trace of it has been found.

Another Malaysia Airlines plane went down in July in rebellion-torn eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard. It was believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile.

Agence France-Presse - Xinhua

(China Daily USA 12/29/2014 page3)