An Air Asia flight with 162 people on board reportedly went missing this morning after takeoff from Indonesia. The flight was on way to Singapore. An official said the plane had asked for an unusual route before losing contact.

Air Asia, in a statement on its facebook page, said Air Asia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 am local time. The flight was to land at 8.30 am local time. The airliner said there is presently no further information about the status of the passengers and crew members. Search and rescue operations are on.

According to PTI, there was no Indian on board the plane. Indonesian TV are reporting there were 149 Indonesians, three Koreans, one Singaporean, one Briton and one Malaysian on on board.
Meanwhile, India has put three ships and a maritime surveillance aircraft on standby for assistance in search operation after an Air Asia flight went missing today en route from Indonesia to Singapore. Talking to AIR, Navy spokesperson said that the long range maritime surveillance Boeing aircraft is presently at Arakkonam, about 70 kilometres from Chennai in Tamil Nadu. One ship has sailed from Chennai to Port Blair and two others are in the Andaman sea, ready to be diverted in case of a request for help.

Along with these, a P-8I aircraft has also been put on standby. The aircraft is used for maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare operations.