There was plenty of weather along the route of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 early Sunday but nothing airlines that ply the busy air corridors over the Java Sea don't regularly cope with. Weather officials said lightning strikes were recorded in the same area and at the same time the A320 with 162 people on board "lost contact" with air traffic control. The crew had just asked for a weather diversion and a climb from 32,000 to 38,000 feet (the route change was approved, the climb was not) when voice, then radar, then ADS-B signals from the aircraft stopped at 6:18 a.m. local time. Cloud tops in the area at the time were higher than 40,000 feet. Indonesian searchers spent almost 13 hours looking for signs of the aircraft but spotted nothing. They were joined part way through the day by SAR aircraft from Singapore. The search resumed in good weather Monday morning, among growing chatter about possible contributing factors.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/airasia-flight-missing