A South Korean maritime patrol aircraft left Tuesday for Indonesia to join the international search for an AirAsia jet that vanished two days earlier with 162 people on board, Seoul's defense ministry said.
AirAsia flight QZ8501 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members lost contact with ground control Sunday en route to Singapore from Indonesia's second-largest city of Surabaya. A South Korean couple and their baby were confirmed to be on board the plane.
The P-3C patrol plane carrying 21 Navy sailors departed from an air base, some 217 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at 7 p.m. and is scheduled to land at Indonesia's Halim air base in Jakarta early Wednesday, the ministry noted.
The South Korean plane will be used in a daily search and rescue mission in support of the wider search operations there.
"Our government decided to supply the military assistance in consideration of the three South Korean nationals included among the 162 passengers as well as the need for speedy humanitarian support," the defense ministry said.
The South Korean patrol plane is scheduled to pass through the airspace of six countries -- Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia -- to reach the accident scene, the ministry noted.
Media reports said that bad weather may have played a part in the plane's disappearance, given that the pilot asked flight controllers for a change of flight plan to avoid inclement weather.
The latest news updates said several bodies of those presumed to be the crash victims were found near the accident scene in the Java Sea.
The Navy's P-3C aircraft has been involved in the search operation for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared in March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It was also involved in the search for the missing crew of a South Korean trawler that sank off Russia's far east coast on Dec. 1. (Yonhap)
