AirAsia plane missing with 162 aboard

A jet flying from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore with 162 people aboard lost contact with air traffic control over the Java Sea about an hour before it was to land and is missing, AirAsia Indonesia officials said Sunday.

Flight QZ8501 took off at about 5:35 a.m. Sunday local time from Juanda International Airport and lost contact with air traffic control at about 7:24 a.m., the airline said on its Facebook page. The time in Surabaya is 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time; Singapore is 13 hours ahead of ET.

"We don't dare to presume what has happened except that it has lost contact," Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, told reporters. He said the last contact between pilot and the air traffic control was at 6:13 a.m. local time when the pilot asked to avoid a cloud bank by turning left and going higher to 34,000 feet.

Flight QZ8501 gave no distress signal, he said.