Summary

  • Contact with Indonesia AirAsia flight QZ8501 lost after it left Surabaya in Indonesia

  • The Airbus A320-200 was carrying 162 people when it went missing over the sea en route to Singapore

  • Air search called off at 10:30 GMT due to poor visibility, but sea rescue operation continues

  • The plane had asked to change its flight path due to bad weather, AirAsia says

  • Most on board are Indonesian - one passenger has been confirmed as a British national

  • An emergency phone line for relatives has been set up - +622 129 850 801

Live Reporting

Mohamed Madi, Sarah Fowler, Julia Macfarlane and Heather Chen

  1. An airport official checks a map of Indonesia at the crisis center set up by local authority for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia on Sunday, 28 December, 2014AP

    It is now 18:08 local time, leaving only about an hour of daylight left in the designated search area for flight QZ8501.

  3. Alice Budisatrijo
    BBC Producer, Jakarta

    tweets: Indonesian navy official told BBC no wreckage of #QZ5801 has been found. Poor weather conditions in search area, visibility between 5-10km.

  4. BBC Monitoring

    Indonesia's Metro TV, as seen by BBC Monitoring, says that the search for missing flight QZ8501 is focusing on the waters around South Borneo.

  5. Charles Scanlon
    BBC Asia Pacific Editor

    The missing plane was on a well monitored flight path over the Java Sea, less than an hour's flying time from major regional hubs including Singapore and Jakarta.

    Search planes and ships will fan out from the point where it disappeared from radar screens and experts say they should not have much trouble finding it.

    It will, however, bring back anguished memories of the two other aircraft with a Malaysian connection lost this year.

    A search is still continuing in the Indian ocean for a Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared without a trace in March.

  7. Search efforts

    The Indonesian air force says two planes have been dispatched to scour an area of the Java Sea, southwest of Pangkalan Bun in Kalimantan province -- around halfway along the flight's expected route.

    Air force spokesman Hadi Cahyanto said: "The weather is cloudy and the area is surrounded by sea. We are still on our way so we won't make an assumption on what happened to the plane."

  8. Passengers queue at the AirAsia check-in counter before departure at Singapore Changi airport terminal on 28 December, 2014AFP

    Despite the disappearance of flight QZ 8501, other AirAsia flights are still continuing.

  9. An official from Indonesia's national search and rescue agency in Medan, North Sumatra points at his computer screen to the position where AirAsia flight QZ8501 went missing off the waters of Indonesia on 28 December, 2014AFP

    An official from Indonesia's national search and rescue agency points at a computer screen displaying the last known position of AirAsia flight QZ8501.

  10. British national on board

    The UK Foreign Office now confirms that a British national was on board missing AirAsia flight QZ8501. Next of kin has been informed, the Foreign Office says.

  11. Channel NewsAsia

    tweets: Indonesia Ambassador to Singapore, Andri Hadi, has arrived at the relatives' holding area at Changi Airport

  12. Reports of Briton on board

    In the UK, the Foreign Office says it is "aware" of reports that a British national is among the missing. A spokesman said: " "Our thoughts are with the passengers' families as they await further news. We are aware of reports of a British national on board and are liaising urgently with the local authorities to establish further details."

  13. The Jakarta Post

    reports: "AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore is believed to have crashed at the location 03.22.46 South and 108.50.07 East, in waters around 80-100 nautical miles from Belitung, a National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) official has said."

    There has been no further detail or confirmation of this report.

  14. Alice Budisatrijo
    BBC Producer

    tweets: Officials at Surabaya airport still call QZ8501 missing, said reports of wreckage found are unconfirmed. Relatives still hopeful too.

  15. Karishma Vaswani
    BBC Indonesia Editor

    tweets: Singapore airport officials say the families and friends of those on board are being briefed regularly about the missing plane.

  16. Channel News Asia

    reports: AirAsia QZ8501's return flight from Singapore back to Surabaya, QZ8502, has been delayed by 8 hours, and is now scheduled to take off from Changi Airport's Terminal 1 at 10.35pm.

  17. Airbus statement

    The aircraft manufacturer Airbus has released a statement on missing flight QZ8501 including details on the aircraft model, a six-year old A320-200 that had carried out some 13,600 flights.

    statement

  18. A relative looks to a list of passengers of Air Asia missing plane at Juanda Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia on 28 December 2014.EPA

    A relative scans a list of passenger names on board the missing AirAsia plane at Juanda Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia.

  19. Malaysia Airlines updates Facebook with solidarity message

    Malaysia Airlines has posted an update to Facebook expressing solidarity with AirAsia:

    facebookfacebook

  20. The Wall Street Journal

    reports that an official from Indonesia's meteorological agency says the weather conditions were slightly rainy in Belitung island and Pontianak city in Kalimantan.

    The plane is thought to have gone missing between the island and the city, and was estimated to be flying through the vicinity, with thick cumulonimbus clouds as high as 45,000 feet.

    "In general cumulonimbus is quite dangerous for aviation activities because it causes thunderstorms and heavy rain," she said. "We have issued a notice that the flight route is cloudy."