AirAsia flight QZ8501:Air Asia plane with 162 aboard from Indonesia to Singapore missing.

AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact at 07:24hrs this morning http://t.co/WomRQuzcPO
— AirAsia (@AirAsia) December 28, 2014

 A major search operation into the missing AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that lost contact with ground control has been suspended for the night.

The search operation for the plane, which is believed to have gone missing while flying over the Java sea, was halted as darkness fell and will resume in the morning at 6am local time.
The Singapore-bound plane had taken off from the provincial city of Surabaya in Indonesia, and lost contact with air traffic control at 7:24am Singaporean local time, nearly two hours after take-off.

Both countries are now conducting a major search and rescue operation for flight QZ8501, and South Korea has said it will help also.

There was no update on the plane’s whereabouts more than six hours after it went missing.