Missing AirAsia plane may have crashed: Indonesia VP

The missing AirAsia plane with 162 people on board might have crashed when it disappeared from the radar, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla says.

“There’s a possibility that it crashed,” Kalla, who is leading the search and rescue effort, added on Sunday 10 hours after the Malaysian passenger plane went missing.

“But we haven’t got any information that indicates where the plane crashed,” he said in a televised press conference.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s Transport Ministry said rescue teams suspended search operations in the Java Sea for the missing AirAsia plane at nightfall on Sunday. However, some boats are still searching.

A Transport Ministry official, Hadi Mustofa, said the rescuers halted their search at 1030 GMT due to darkness and “really cloudy weather.”

He added that the operations would be resumed on Monday.

Passengers’ anxious relatives gathered at Singapore airport awaiting any news about their loved ones.

The AirAsia passenger plane lost contact with air traffic control after asking for an unusual route from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

The Malaysian airline says the pilot of Flight QZ8501 had requested deviation from its route because of bad weather.

The aircraft lost contact with Indonesia’s Surabaya airport 42 minutes after takeoff.

Local media reports say the passengers include 149 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one Briton, one Malaysian and one Singaporean.

AirAsia released a statement saying the plane was an Airbus A320-200 and that search and rescue operations have begun.

The flight was expected to arrive in Singapore at 08:30 local time (00:30 GMT).