AirAsia fight QZ8501 has gone missing with 162 people on board. It was travelling between Indonesia and Singapore, where it had been due to land at 08:30 local time (00.30 GMT) this morning. It made a request for a “deviation” from its flight plan due to bad weather, and was last last heard from as it flew over the Java sea at 07:24 (11.24 GMT).
The passenger manifest shows that 154 passengers boarded; there were 23 no-shows. The majority were Indonesian. Earlier reports listed the nationalities as 157 Indonesians; three Koreans, one Malaysian, one Britain and one Singaporean, however, later reports are listing no British, and one French citizen.
It is understood that 16 of the passengers were children, and one is an infant. There are seven crew members on board: four cabin crew, two pilots and one engineer. The pilot in command, Captain Iriyanto had a total of 6,100 flying hours; his first officer Remi Emmanuel Plesel, 2,275 flying hours.
At 6.16am AirlineGeeks.com (@airlinegeeks) tweeted “The fuel supply on #QZ8501 would have run out by now. There is no possibility that the aircraft is still flying.”
Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s chief executive has been quoted as saying “Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We much stay strong”.
Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director general of transportation has told the press “We don’t dare to presume what has happened except that it has lost contact.”