All you need to know about the missing Air Asia Indonesia QZ 8501 missing Flight

A six year old Air Asia Flight QZ 8501 Indonesia airliner flying from Surabaya, Indonesia bound for Singapore’s Changi Airport with 162 people on board went missing at about 22.31 GMT Saturday.

The plane, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control in Jakarta at 06:24 local time (23:24 GMT Saturday)
over the Java Sea between Indonesia’s Kalimantan portion of Borneo and Belitung island off the eastern coast of Sumatra as the pilot asked to turn left and climb to 34,000 feet to “avoid clouds.” It was last tracked around the island of Belitung, at the coordinates 03°22’15" South and 109°41’28" East at 23.17GMT midway into the flight of more than two hours from the city of Surabaya. No distress call was made.

Rescue teams were dispatched to search an area 145km from the island of Belitung, which lies between Sumatra and Borneo. More than 12 hours after the plane went missing, there was no confirmation search teams have found a crash site.

The 162 passengers on board include the 7 crew, 17 children and 1 infant. The majority of those on board were Indonesian about 156, but there were three South Koreans, one French, one Malaysian, one Singaporean and a Briton. The Briton on board the AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been named as ChiMan Choi. He is thought to have been travelling with his daughter, Zoe.

The pilot is known as Captain Iriyanto, while the French copilot has been named as Remi Emmanuel Plesel. The four flight attendants on flight QZ8501 are listed as Wanti Setiawati, Khairunisa Haidar Fauzi, Oscar Desano and Wismoyo Ari Prambudi, along with technician Saiful Rakhmad.

The captain in command had 20,537 flying hours in total and 6,100 flying hours with the airline and the first officer had 2,275 flying hours, according to AirAsia. The aircraft last underwent maintenance on Nov. 16.

A massive search and rescue operation began for the plane, with fishing boats and official vessels being sent out by Indonesia's national search and rescue authority. Helicopters and Hercules aircraft from Singapore, Australia and Malaysia were also sent out to search for the plane, with efforts focusing around the area of the Java Sea near Belitung. However the efforts were halted for the night due to unworkable conditions caused by large waves and clouds.

The fishing boats and official vessels that were sent out by Indonesia's national search and rescue authority, along with helicopters and Hercules aircraft from Singapore, have resumed their efforts at sunrise on Monday morning  6.am (11pm UK Time).