An AirAsia Indonesia airliner flying from Indonesia to Singapore with 162 people on board has lost contact with air traffic control. <br /> <br />Flight QZ8501 went missing at 07:24 (23:24 GMT), AirAsia tweeted. <br /> <br />The plane, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared midway into the flight of more than two hours and no distress call was issued. <br /> <br />Indonesian military planes and aircraft from Singapore are searching an area of the Java Sea. <br /> <br />The flight left the Indonesian city of Surabaya in eastern Java at 05:20 local time (22:20 GMT) and was due to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 (00:30 GMT). <br /> <br />The missing jet had requested a "deviation" from the flight path due to bad weather, AirAsia said. <br /> <br />Indonesia's transport ministry said the pilot had asked permission to climb to 38,000 ft (11,000m) to avoid thick cloud. <br /> <br />AirAsia, a budget airline which owns 49% of AirAsia Indonesia, is based in Malaysia and has never lost a plane. <br /> <br />However, 2014 has been a difficult year for aviation in Asia: Malaysia's national carrier Malaysia Airlines has suffered two losses - flights MH370 and MH17. <br /> <br />Flight MH370 disappeared on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew. The wreckage, thought to be in southern Indian Ocean, has still not been located. <br /> <br />MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July, killing all 298 on board.
