BREAKING NEWS: AIRBUS VANISHES 162 ON BOARD.....AirAsia Flight From Indonesia To Singapore Goes Missing with several passengers & crew on board

Reuters Posted: 12/27/2014 10:24 pm EST 

Rumours abounded after it emerged that the
 tickets for two passengers who used stolen
 passports to travel on a missing Malaysia
Airlines flight were booked by an Iranian man
 known only as “Mr. Ali", according to the FT.
But one of those travelling has been identified
 as a 19-year-old Iranian, almost definitely headed
 to Germany to seek asylum, with no links
whatsoever to terror networks. Besides,
 it would be baffling as to why Iran would
 want to hijack a plane almost entirely compromised
 of Chinese passengers. China is a key ally of Iran.

SINGAPORE, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Budget carrier AirAsia confirmed on Sunday that its flight QZ 8501 from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore had lost contact with air traffic control.

The Airbus 320-200 had 155 passengers and crew on board, Indonesian transport officials said.

Indonesian media said 149 Indonesians, three people from Korea, and one from Singapore, Britain and Malaysia were on board.

A search and rescue operation had been launched, Malaysian-based AirAsia said. (Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Dean Yates) more