No trace of missing AirAsia plane

A search and rescue operation in the Java Sea for an AirAsia passenger plane missing since the early morning on Sunday has been suspended at fall of darkness, Indonesian authorities said.

"We ended at 5:30 p.m. (1030 UTC) because it was getting dark. The weather was also not too good as it was getting really cloudy," transport ministry official Hadi Mustofa told AFP news agency, adding that the operation would resume early on Monday.

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 last communicated with Indonesian air traffic control about 42 minutes after taking off from Indonesia's Surabaya airport at 5:20 a.m. local time (2220 UTC) en route to Singapore, a flight that normally takes just more than two hours.

The airline said in a statement that Indonesian air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane, an Airbus 320-200, shortly after its pilots had requested permission to ascend to avoid bad weather - a standard maneuver in such circumstances.

Reports said the plane issued no distress signal before disappearing.

Stormy conditions

The plane was carrying 162 people on board, mostly Indonesians. The airline said three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, and France were also among the passengers and crew. Britain later said one of its nationals was also on board.

Search and rescue operations have focused on waters around the islands of Bangka and Belitung in the Java Sea, near Kalimanten island, which is where the plane was situated when contact was lost. Singapore and Malaysia are aiding Indonesia in its search efforts, which have so far yielded no results.

AirAsia, a regional low-cost carrier founded in 2001, has never had a fatal accident.

A weather forecaster at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said dense storm clouds were detected at flying altitude in the area where the plane lost contact.

"There could have been turbulence, lightning and vertical as well as horizontal strong winds within such clouds," said Sunardi, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name .

Bad aviation year for Asia

Sunday's incident comes in the wake of two disasters this year that struck another Asian carrier, Malaysia Airlines, which lost two aircraft in the past ten months.

Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. It has still not been found, despite a massive search operation by several countries.

Another Malaysia Airlines flight, MH17, was allegedly shot down over territory held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in mid-July. All 298 passengers and crew lost their lives.

tj/bk (AFP, AP)