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SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — Officials say ships and planes are resuming their search for AirAsia Flight 8501 which went missing more than 24 hours ago on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore.
The Naval Aviation Center commander at the Surabaya air force base says that 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships are searching an area of east and southeast Belitung island and nearby waters.
He says visibility is good, adding "God willing, we can find it soon."
The Airbus A320-200, with162 passengers and crew aboard, vanished Sunday morning in airspace thick with dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning on its way from Surabaya to Singapore.
Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.
There were a number of children aboard the flight.
AirAsia is based in Malaysia. The plane's loss comes on top of the still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine.
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