By Ehi Ekhator, Naija Center News
Few days to 2015, another aircraft has suddenly disappeared, a similar situation to the missing Malaysia flight in March early this year.
AirAsia has confirmed that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 7:24 on Sunday morning.
According to the information posted on the airline Facebook Fanpage, AirAsia regrets the news, adding that there is no further information on the status of the passengers and crew members on board.
Airline further revealed that the flight has on board, 155 passengers, 2 pilots and 5 crews.
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with registration number PK- AXE
AirAsia said Search and rescue operation are presently in progress and the airline is working fully with assisting and rescue service.
According to the statement ” AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 (Surabaya LT) this morning. The flight took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 0535hours.
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer on board.
The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours
There were 155 passengers on board, with 138 adults, 16 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots and 5 cabin crew.
Nationalities of passengers and crew onboard are as below:
1 Singapore
1 Malaysia
1 France
3 South Korean
156 Indonesia
At this time, search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of The Indonesia of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). AirAsia Indonesia is cooperating fully and assisting the investigation in every possible way.
The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to enroute weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian Air Traffic Control (ATC).
The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.
AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre that is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft. The number is: +622129850801.”
It could be recalled that a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, with 239 passengers on board, was scheduled to fly from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumper to Beijing in China suddenly disappeared on Saturday March 8 and till today, it’s whereabouts is unknown.
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