REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON -- A British passenger on board missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 is believed to be Chi Man Choi, a managing director of an energy company based in Indonesia. He was believed to be with his two-year-old daughter Zoe on the same flight.

British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) confirmed on Sunday a British passenger was on board the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, which lost contact with the air traffic control earlier in the day soon after taking off from Surabaya in Indonesia's East Java province.

Chi was born in Hull city of northeast England and studied at the University of Essex, British Sky News reported.  His LinkedIn page shows that he has served as unit managing director of thermal services at Alstom Power since July this year. He had also worked for Schneider Electric and Siemens between 2005 and 2009.

"My thoughts are with the family and friends of all those on board Air Asia flight QZ8501," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on his Twitter account.

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 am (2235 GMT Saturday) at Indonesia's Surabaya airport, was scheduled to land in Singapore at 8.30 am local time (0030 GMT), the airline said.

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