QZ8501: Indonesia denies flight crashed east of Belitung Islands

Indonesian government has denied that AirAsia flight QZ8501 had crashed east of Belitung Islands in the Jawa Sea.

Indonesia's air transportation director general, Djoko Murjatmodjo said the agency has yet to receive any information surrounding the missing flight which had gone missing after the plane departed from Surabaya's Juanda International Airport at 5:20am (local time).

AirAsia flight QZ8501 was supposed to arrive in Singapore at 8:30am.

Djoko also stressed that search operations are underway.

"We will soon depart to monitor the signs around the location of the missing flight," said Djoko.

Several media portals had earlier reported of an aircraft which had crashed at Belitung Islands.