Airline confirms plane with 162 aboard missing

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An AirAsia flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday, Indonesian media said, citing a Transport Ministry official.

The airline, described as a budget carrier, confirmed that flight QZ 8501 had lost contact.

Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa said the aircraft, flight number QZ 8501, lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower at 6:17 a.m local time. (3:17 p.m. PST).

The Airbus 320-200 had 155 passengers and crew on board, another Indonesian Transport official said.

Mustofa said the plane had asked for an unusual route before it lost contact.

The aircraft was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when it went missing, Joko Muryo Atmodjo, air transportation director at the Transport Ministry, told a news conference.

The aircraft had been flying at 32,000 feet and had asked to fly at 38,000 feet to avoid clouds, he said.

The flight had been due in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. Singapore time. The Singapore airport said on its website the status of the flight was “delayed.”

Indonesian media said 149 Indonesians, three people from Korea, and one from Singapore, Britain and Malaysia were on board.

A search and rescue operation had been launched, Malaysian-based AirAsia said.

U.S. President Barack Obama was briefed on the disappearance of AirAsia flight 8501 on Saturday, said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.

Obama was briefed on the situation while on vacation with his family in Hawaii.