Indonesia resumes search for AirAsia plane

Indonesia resumed its search at dawn on Monday for the AirAsia passenger jet that went missing above the Java Sea with 162 people on board.

First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, commander at Indonesia's Naval Aviation Center at the Surabaya air force base, told the AP news agency that visibility was good.

He said 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and several warships were searching to the east and southeast of Belitung Island and in nearby waters. "God willing, we can find it soon," Setiayana said.

The search and rescue operation had been suspended at nightfall on Sunday, with anxious relatives waiting throughout the night for further news.

Teams from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia were involved in a Sunday search operation near the island, which lies close to the plane's last known whereabouts. Those efforts were halted because of a lack of light.

International offers of help

Australia, the United States, Britain, South Korea and India were said to have offered help, including search planes and navy ships, as well as experts and investigators.

AirAsia Flight QZ8501 last communicated with Indonesian air traffic control about 42 minutes after taking off from Indonesia's Surabaya airport at 5:20 a.m. local time (22:20 UTC) en route to Singapore, a flight that normally takes just over two hours.

According to the airline, Indonesian air traffic controllers lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 plane shortly after its pilots had requested permission to ascend by 6,000 feet to avoid bad weather - a standard maneuver in such circumstances.

A weather forecaster at Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said dense storm clouds were detected at flying altitude in the area where the plane lost contact.

Majority of passengers Indonesian

The plane was carrying 162 people, 155 of whom were Indonesians. The airline said three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain were also onboard. A Frenchman was also working on the plane as co-pilot.

Sunday's incident comes in the wake of two major air disasters in the past 10 months, both of which struck another Asian carrier, Malaysia Airlines.

Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. Despite a massive search operation by several countries, the plane remains missing.

A second Malaysia Airlines flight, MH17, was shot down over territory held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in mid-July. All 298 passengers and crew lost their lives.

AirAsia, a regional low-cost carrier founded in 2001, has never had a fatal accident.

rc/cmk (AP, Reuters, AFP, dpa)