AIRASIA AIRBUS GOES MISSING; 162 ABOARD

Indonesia air traffic control lost contact with AirAsia flight QZ8501 bound for Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya on Sunday morning.

Search and rescue operations have begun, AirAsia Indonesia said on its Facebook page.

The carrier released a statement listing 155 passengers on board, with 138 adults, 16 children and one infant. Also on board were two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer.

The nationalities of the passengers and crew onboard include one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one French, three South Koreans and 156 Indonesians.

The aircraft lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 7:24am local time, 42 minutes after departure and an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore, and reportedly while it was flying over Pulau Belitung.

The captain in command had a total of 6,100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2,275 flying hours, said AirAsia.

The aircraft, which underwent its last scheduled maintenance on…