A plane disappears in Asia with over 160 people on board

AirAsia plane with 161 people on board disappeared from radar screens while he was leaving turbulence in Southeast Asia on Saturday night.

The aircraft, an A320-200, was the connection between Surabaya, Indonesia, and Singapore.

By late evening, more than three hours after the scheduled time for the landing, the aircraft still was missing.

The news was first reported by local media and confirmed by AirAsia in a statement.

"AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that the QZ8501 flight from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control at 7:24 this (Sunday) morning (local time)," wrote the airline on its Facebook page.

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"Right now, we have no user information regarding the status of the passengers and crew on board, but we will inform all parties as the information becomes available," the statement said.

AirAsia said a search operation was launched to try to locate the aircraft.

According to local media reports citing the Ministry of Transport, the aircraft had 155 passengers on board, in addition to some crew members.

According to a statement from the Directorate of Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, the contact was lost in Indonesian airspace, "200 nautical miles (350 km) southeast of the border between information regions flight from Jakarta and Singapore. "

A spokesman for the ministry, Mustofa Hadi, said that the unit had asked to be confused shortly before losing contact.

At the time of going to press, the nationality of the passengers on the plane had not yet been confirmed.

A hotline has been set up by the airline for the families of those on board the aircraft.