Airbus offers full support to AirAsia flight probe

European aircraft manufacturing consortium Airbus has announced full support to the probe into the disappearance of the AirAsia flight QZ8501 while it was flying from Indonesia to Singapore Sunday, with 162 passengers on board.

Airbus announced its support in a press release Sunday and said it would provide full assistance to the authorities in charge of the investigation, in line with Annex 13 of an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) convention, according to Xinhua.

The missing Airbus A320-200 aircraft was delivered to AirAsia in October 2008, said Airbus, adding that the aircraft, powered by CFM-56-5B engines, had accumulated approximately 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights.

More information will be available once the details have been confirmed and cleared by the authorities, said Airbus.

The missing aircraft is part of the Airbus A320 family of aircrafts. It is a twin-engine single-aisle aircraft seating up to 180 passengers in a single-class configuration.

According to Airbus, the entire fleet has accumulated some 154 million flight hours in some 85 million flights to date.

The thoughts of the Airbus management and staff are with all those affected by the disappearance of flight QZ 5801, according to the press release.