Air traffic controllers have lost contact with an AirAsia flight headed from Indonesia to Singapore, the airline announced Sunday.
Flight QZ8501 took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, and has not been in communication with air traffic personnel since 7:24 a.m. local time, AirAsia said in a statement.
The plane, an Airbus A320-200, was carrying 162 people — 155 passengers, two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer, according to the statement.
The passengers included 138 adults, 16 children and one infant.
The captain and first officer have 6,100 and 2,275 flying hours of experience, respectively, the airline said.
Among the passengers and crew were 156 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one each from France, Malaysia and Singapore, AirAsia said. An initially released manifest listed 157 Indonesians and no one from France.
The aircraft underwent its most recent scheduled maintenance Nov. 16, the airline said. At the time of the disappearance, it was requesting permission to deviate from its submitted flight plan route due to weather conditions, officials said.
Search and rescue operations were underway, and the company stated it was “cooperating fully” and assisting with the efforts.
“At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew on board, but we will keep all parties informed as information becomes available,” AirAsia said.
After confirming the flight’s disappearance, AirAsia changed the color of its logo on Facebook and Twitter from red to gray.