Indonesia AirAsia has confirmed that flight QZ8501 took off with 162 people on board, and that the aircraft was requesting a deviation from its flight plan due to weather, when it lost contact with air traffic control.
Of the 155 passengers, there are 138 adults, 16 children and an infant. A majority (157) of the passengers are from Indonesia, with three from South Korea, and also a passenger each from Malaysia and Singapore.
Two pilots, four cabin crew members and an engineer are also on board the aircraft.
AirTeam Images
Without naming the pilots, AirAsia says the captain in command has accumulated 6,100 flight hours and the first officer 2,275 flight hours.
A passenger manifest released by Indonesia’s Transport Ministry shows that 23 passengers did not show up or check in for the flight bound for Singapore.
AirAsia says the aircraft, which was on the Surabaya-Singapore route, was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to enroute weather, before communication was lost. At that time it was still under the control of the Indonesian air traffic control.
The 2008-built Airbus A320, registered PK-AXC, had its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November.
A load and trim sheet released by Indonesia’s transport ministry shows the aircraft was carrying 8,470kgs of fuel when it departed from Juanda International airport at 05:35 local time.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
