AirAsia Flight Carrying 162 Goes Missing En Route To Singapore

An AirAsia flight carrying 162 people has gone missing en route to Singapore.

Aviation authorities lost contact with AisAsia Flight 8501, which was flying from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, at 7:24am this morning as it was traveling over the Java Sea, according to the airline's Twitter account.

The flight "was requesting deviation due to en route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost," the Malaysian-owned airline said in a statement.

"At this time, search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority," it added.

The Airbus A320-200 is carrying 162 passengers and crew of which 156 are Indonesian, three are South Korean, one is French, one is Malaysian and one is Singaporean.

The incident comes at the very end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation companies, starting with Malaysia Airlines Flight MMH370 which went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, followed by Flight MH17 which was shot down over Ukraine.

[Photo via Kentaro IEMOTO]