Good vibes for the people on board and hopefully it will re-appear safely.

Unusual route - may involve hijacking.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE
INDONESIA AIRASIA INCIDENT

28 December 2014, 11:30am Local Time:- An Indonesia AirAsia aircraft, QZ8501, scheduled to arrive at 0830 hours local time from Surabaya, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 0724 hours local time today. Singapore air traffic control was informed of this loss of contact at 0754 hours by Jakarta air traffic control. The aircraft was in the Indonesian Flight Information Region (FIR) when contact was lost, more than 200 nm southeast of the Singapore-Jakarta FIR boundary.

Search and rescue operations have been activated by the Indonesian authorities from the Pangkal Pinang Search and Rescue office.

The Singapore Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and supported by various agencies, including the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), has also been activated and has offered help to the Indonesian authorities. Two C130s are already on stand-by for this purpose. We remain ready to provide any
assistance to support the search and rescue effort.

The CAAS and Changi Airport Group (CAG) Crisis Management Centres have already been activated. We are working with the airline’s crisis management team.

A waiting area, and all necessary facilities and support have been set up for relatives and friends of the affected passengers at Changi Airport Terminal 2 (Level 3).

Further updates will be provided once more information is available.

Steve Herman ?@W7VOA 3m3 minutes ago
Reported nationalities of those on board #QZ8501: 149 Indonesians, 3 Koreans, 1 Singaporean, 1 Briton, 1 Malaysian.

Seems like their neck of the woods.

and Singapore is 13 hours ahead of EST.

So if it was due in at 8:30am in Singapore - that would be 7:30pm EST. News is going out 3 hours after the plane was due - which was around 4 hours ago.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/12/28/airasia-flight-indonesia-singapore-missing-transport-official

Hoping against hope that the passengers and crew are somehow safe, but it's not looking too good.

FWIW, this was the same type of plane that landed in the Hudson River in 2009

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Airbus_A320_family

For some strange reason, my browser isn't allowing me to open wiki.
I'll try later.

lately our internet service has been acting kinda wonky, it'll probably work fine tomorrow.

The A320 model is comparable in size and safety rating to the Boeing 737, and together the A320 and 737 are the most widely used and produced aircraft in the world.

AirAsia Flight From Indonesia to Singapore Missing, Airline Says
NBCNews
12/27/14

<snip>

An AirAsia flight from Indonesia to Singapore is missing, the airline said in a statement.

"AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24hrs this morning," the airline said in a statement.

There are 162 people aboard the Airbus A320-200, Hadi Mustofa, an official of the transportation ministry told Indonesia's MetroTV, according to The Associated Press.

"At the present time we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board, but we will keep all parties informed as more information becomes available,"the airline said.

"At this time, search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service," the statement said.

<snip>

Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/airasia-flight-indonesia-singapore-missing-airline-says-n275696

Weather maps of the area are showing some pretty nasty weather, too.

is probably where this plane went.

Some producer at CNN just screamed 'Woo Hoo!'

The other networks just said it's in the ocean somewhere and ended it.

My thoughts are with those who have loved ones on the flight.

Strong thunderstorms reported in the area...

closes off openings on the bottom of the plane so it can more safely land on water. Faint hope, but hope nonetheless.

(RSOE) -- An aircraft has reportedly crashed off the east coast of Sumatera, in the waters of East Belitung. This report came after authorities confirmed that AirAsia Flight QZ8501 went missing earlier today. An Indonesian news portal Bangka Pos had quoted an official from H.A.S Hanandjoeddin Tanjungpandan Airport in Indonesia, Suparno, said the exact location of the crash site has not been identified. The portal also reported that the Indonesian national search and rescue agency (Basarnas) team from Bangka Belitung were heading to East Belitung waters. "We will immediately head to East Belitung by sea," said Basarnas Commander Joni Superiadi to Bangka Pos. The AirAsia flight QZ8501 was scheduled to arrive at 8.30am in Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia, when the Jakarta Air Traffic Control lost contact at 7.54am.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_update_read&edis_id=VI-20141228-46468-IDN&uid=15640

which is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. There were very strong storms in the area, so this looks like it could well be weather related.

There's a decent interview with an Indonesian official over at the BBC.

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/airasia-qz8501/

What’s Going On?

An AirAsia passenger jet with 162 people aboard went missing Sunday morning while flying from Indonesia to Singapore. The crew of the Airbus A320 asked to deviate from its planned route due to weather shortly before losing contact with air traffic control.

The plane had taken off from Surabaya and was supposed to arrive in Singapore at 8:30 am. Reports indicate there were thunderstorms in the area, and the AirAsia crew asked to move from its cruising altitude of 32,000 feet, up to 38,000 feet to avoid a cloud, according to the Wall Street Journal. A few minutes later, the plane disappeared from radar.

JAKARTA - Indonesia resumed a sea and aerial search at dawn Monday for an AirAsia plane that went missing in the Java Sea with 162 people on board, an official said, as anguished relatives waited desperately for news. "We have resumed the search for the missing AirAsia plane at 6:00 am (2300 GMT Sunday). We are heading to east Belitung island," Tatang Zainuddin, deputy operations chief of Indonesia's National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) told AFP. "We are expecting vessels and planes from Malaysia and Singapore (to assist in the search). We hope we can find the plane as soon as possible," Zainuddin said.

The Airbus A320-200 disappeared en route from Surabaya in Indonesia's east Java to Singapore after the crew requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather, in the third crisis for a Malaysian carrier this year. Five aircraft will be sent to search for the plane, including two C130 military transport aircraft and a Boeing 737, Indonesian air force spokesman Hadi Cahyanto told AFP. "Two planes have already left. Three more will follow suit. It is cloudy in some parts but still bright," Cahyanto said. "We are focusing the search area in the waters on the eastern and northern part of Belitung island."

Officials had called off the search as night fell on Sunday evening, around 11 hours after the plane went missing. AirAsia said 155 of those on board flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France. The Frenchman was the co-pilot.



See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/flight-qz8501-indonesia-resumes-search-missing-airasia-plane#sthash.yIWayaAn.dpuf