A British passenger was confirmed to be on board missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said Sunday.

An AirAsia passenger plane with 162 people aboard lost contact with the air traffic control earlier in the day soon after taking off from Surabaya in Indonesia's East Java province.

"We have been informed by the local authorities that one British national was on board. Their next of kin has been informed, and we stand ready to provide consular assistance," a spokesperson for the FCO said in a statement.

"Our thoughts are with the passengers' families as they await further news," the statement said.

There were 155 passengers and seven crew members on board the Singapore-bound Airbus A320-200 aircraft, including 16 children and an infant, according to AirAsia.

The plane, which lost communication with the ground 42 minutes after taking off at 5:35 a.m. (2235 GMT Saturday) at Indonesia's Surabaya airport, was scheduled to land in Singapore at 8:30 a.m. local time (0030 GMT), the airline said.

AirAsia previously said the nationalities of the passengers and crew members include Singaporean, Malaysian, French, South Korean and Indonesian. Endi

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