Indonesia call off search for missing AirAsia plane
According to dpa, the search for AirAsia flight QZ8501 was suspended because of poor weather and nightfall. It will resume on Monday morning, said Djoko Murjatmojo, Indonesia's director general of transportation.
The Airbus A320-200 disappeared from radar shortly after taking off from Surabaya in East Java. It last made contact with air traffic control in Jakarta early Sunday to request permission to ascend to an altitude of 38,000 feet from 32,000 feet to avoid bad weather, said Murjatmojo.
At 6:16 am, the flight was still seen on the radar but disappeared two minutes later.
"After 50 minutes of search, at 7:08 am (0008 GMT) the flight was declared missing and a distress call was issued," Murjatmojo said.
Murjatmojo said the plane's last known location was somewhere between Pontianak in West Kalimantan and Tanjung Pandan in Belitung Island near Sumatra.
"We can't assume anything at the moment. Our temporary assumption so far is that the flight has lost contact," he said.
Several planes, including some from Singapore, and vessels were involved in the search.
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said later that the plane might have crashed since it had been missing for 10 hours.
"There's a possibility that it crashed," says Kalla, who is leading the search-and-rescue effort.
"But we haven't got any information that indicates where the plane crashed," he said during a televised press conference from the office of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).
AirAsia said that 155 of the people on board were Indonesians. The others included three from South Korea, and one each from Singapore, Malaysia, France and Britain.
Manufacturer Airbus identified the plane as a six-year-old A320-200 that had flown 23,000 hours since its delivery in 2008.
Relatives, friends and air travellers anxiously awaited updates on the fate of the missing plane. At Surabaya's Juanda airport, Agus said said his aunt and eight other family members were on their way to Singapore for a holiday.
"I am hoping for the best. This is not just one family member, but it's a whole family," he was quoted as saying by Indonesia's daily Republika.
AirAsia is based in Malaysia, where it was founded by local businessman Tony Fernandes. The flight's disappearance is the third air travel incident this year linked to Malaysia.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 carrying 239 people vanished almost without a trace on March 8, one hour after departing Kuala Lumpur for Beijing.
On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 went down over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew on board the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Fernandes refused to speculate about the fate of the plane during a televised press conference at Surabaya airport.
"Our concern right now is the families and next of kin," he said. "We have no idea at the moment what went wrong. Let's not speculate for the moment."
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