Disappearance of the AirAsia Airbus: the co-pilot was French

A plane of Indonesia AirAsia party disappeared from the monitors that night. It was carrying 155 passengers and 7 crew members and went to Singapore. The co-pilot was French from the Indonesian Ministry of Transport. The aircraft departed from Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, on the island of Java, at 5:20 local time.

Shortly before the disappearance of flight QZ 8501, the pilot requested permission to air traffic control to change flight plan using the altitude due to bad weather.

The aircraft, an Airbus A320 was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a branch of the Malaysian airline AirAsia low costs.

This drama is the third known Malaysian aviation this year, after the disappearance of flight MH370 Malaysia Airlines in March and then blowing up another Boeing Malaysia Airlines in July over Eastern Ukraine. 156 Indonesians were on board the Airbus AirAsia.