The Indian Navy on Sunday was put on standby for search and rescue operations after an AirAsia flight, travelling from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, lost contact with the air traffic control (ATC) earlier in the day.
According to reports, the navy has kept three ships and one Boeing P8-I fixed-wing aircraft ready for operations.
Earlier in the day, AirAsia Indonesia confirmed that flight QZ8501 had lost contact with the ATC at 7:24 am (Surabaya local time).
A statement released by AirAsia stated that the nationalities of passengers and crew onboard include one from Singapore, one from Malaysia, three from South Korea and 157 Indonesians.
