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Nation fears the worst as plane goes missing
Tragedy: A woman whose relatives were onboard the ill-fated AirAsia QZ 8501 weeps at Juanda International Airportâs crisis center in Surabaya on Sunday
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span class="caption">Tragedy: A woman whose relatives were onboard the ill-fated AirAsia QZ 8501 weeps at Juanda International Airport's crisis center in Surabaya on Sunday. Carrying 162 people including crew, the plane went missing near Belitung island, apparently because of bad weather, on Sunday morning. Courtesy of Surya/Ahmad Zaimul Haqher
The fate of an AirAsia jet carrying 162 passengers remains unclear, a search and rescue mission on Sunday finding no clues as to its whereabouts as shocked family members awaited any news of the jetliner.
AirAsia flight QZ8501, en route to Singapore from Indonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya in East Java, was officially announced missing two and a half hours after it took off at 5:36 a.m. on Sunday. It was scheduled to arrive at Changi at 8:30 a.m. local time.
The Airbus A320-200 aircraft with registration number PK-AXC was owned and operated by budget airline PT Indonesia AirAsia, part of Malaysia's AirAsia Group.
The plane was carrying 155 passengers, including 16 children and one infant, AirAsia said in a statement. There were also seven crew members on board.
Most of the people on board were Indonesian citizens, with seven foreign nationals -- one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one British citizen, three South Koreans and one French citizen, who was the copilot.
In a press conference following the flight's disappearance, the Transportation Ministry's acting director general for air transportation Djoko Murjatmodjo said that QZ8501 was initially flying at 32,000 feet.
However, the pilot contacted air traffic control in Jakarta at 6:12 a.m., requesting to fly at a higher altitude of 38,000 feet and to deviate to the left side of its route -- route M635 -- in an effort to avoid clouds.
'Air traffic control granted the request to deviate to the left side, but refused the request to fly higher because of air traffic,' Djoko said.
The flight was last seen on air traffic control radar at 6:16 a.m.
'The flight's last position was between Tanjung Pandan [in Bangka Belitung province] and Pontianak [in West Kalimantan],' Djoko said.
AirAsia said the captain, Iriyanto, had logged a total of 6,100 flying hours, and the copilot, Remi Emmanual Plesel, had 2,275 hours. Iriyanto is a former Indonesian Air Force F16 pilot.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said the Surabaya-Singapore route taken by the flight was extremely cloudy.
'Based on the agency's weather map, there were a lot of thick, layered clouds on the route when the incident occurred,' BMKG head Andi Eka Sakya said.
Andi said it was suspected that the thick, layered cumulonimbus clouds had led to the tragic fate of the aircraft.
Later in the day, Air Chief Marshal FH Bambang Soelistyo, who is the chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), said that it was suspending search and rescue operations with the approach of nightfall and would resume activities the next day.
The agency has set up two operation centers, with the main center located at Basarnas office in Central Jakarta and the tactical center situated in Pangkal Pinang in Bangka Belitung.
Basarnas would be assisted on Monday by Malaysia and Singapore, Bambang said.
'Malaysia has offered three aircraft and three vessels, while Singapore has offered one aircraft. Australia has extended similar assistance as well,' he said, adding that all operations would be based in Pangkal Pinang.
AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said in a press conference in Surabaya that the flight's disappearance was his 'worst nightmare'.
'Our priority is looking after all the next-of-kin for my staff and passengers. We will do whatever we can. We continue to pass on information as it comes,' he said .
Fernandes left for Surabaya the same day upon hearing the news.
Separately, French planemaker Airbus said in a statement that the missing aircraft was part of its A320 aircraft family. It delivered the aircraft to AirAsia from its production line in October 2008.
At Juanda Airport in Surabaya, dozens of relatives waited in the crisis center room, some sobbing, others looking dazed as they waited for updates from officials.
Most of the passengers on board were middle-class families planning to spend their New Year holidays in the city-state.
Having a presence in most of Southeast Asia, AirAsia has never lost a plane before and has a good safety track record.
