An Indonesia AirAsia Airbus A320-200, with 162 onboard, lost contact with air traffic control over the Java Sea early Sunday morning local time, Indonesian officials report. Flight QZ8501, en route from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore, had requested a flight deviation to avoid foul weather, say officials.

The plane was flying at a normal cruising altitude of 32,000 ft and roughly between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo when it went missing, Reuters reports. According to a statement released by AirAsia, the aircraft was on its submitted flight plan and about an hour from its scheduled landing at 8.30 AM when contact was lost at 7:24 AM local time, while still under Indonesian Air Traffic Control.

AirAsia also noted in a statement that search and rescue operations are being conducted under the guidance of the Indonesian Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and that the airline is fully cooperating with and assisting the investigation in every possible way. The single-aisle Airbus aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance in mid-November of this year and the Associated Press reports that the airline, a dominant regional low-cost carrier, had heretofore never lost a plane.

An AirAsia Airbus A320. Credit: Wikipedia

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AirAsia Airbus Missing Over Java Sea