Countries offers help in search for missing AirAsia aircraft

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott tweeted: "I’ve spoken to President Widodo tonight to convey Australia’s sadness at the #AirAsia #QZ8501 tragedy and offered all we can to assist."

Malaysian Prime Minister  Najib Razak posted on Twitter: "Very sad to hear that AirAsia Indonesia QZ8501 is missing. My thoughts are with the families. Malaysia stands ready to help."

Indonesian authorities have suspended for the night the operation to search for the AirAsia flight with 162 people, mostly Indonesian, on board flying to Singapore from Indonesia went missing in the air after it lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday morning, reports said.

"Bad weather was reported in the area, and an air search operation has now been suspended for the night," BBC reported.

AirAsia said the flight took off from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya at 0535 hours local time.

Speaking ont he missing flight, Air Asia tweeted: "AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24hrs this morning."

The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC.

Nationalities of the passengers in the flight are 1 Singapore,1 Malaysia ,3 South Korea,1 United Kingdom, 149 Indonesia.

The crew of the plane comprised of 1 French 6 Indonesian persons.

The aircraft had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November 2014.

AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre that is available for family or friends of those who may have been on board the aircraft. The number is: +622129850801.

The entire world is intrigued still by the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 after it disappeared between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing in March with 239 passengers and crew members on board with no trace of its wreckage found yet.