Air traffic controllers reportedly lost contact with the Airbus A320-200 about an hour after it departed Juanda international airport in Surabaya about 5:30am .
It was scheduled to arrive in Singapore at 8:30am (0030 GMT).
According to MSN, the plane asked permission from Jakarta air traffic control to track away from its flight plan and climb above adverse weather in an area renowned for severe thunderstorms, before disappearing.
The pilots requested "deviation due to enroute weather before communication with the aircraft was lost while it was still under the control of the Indonesian Air Traffic Control (ATC)," AirAsia had said in a statement on its Facebook page.
The airline reported the account of those onboard of the Flight QZ8501 being 156 Indonesians, 3 South Koreans, I Singaporean and one French passenger.
The Indonesian air force had however stated that it has launched out two of its planes to search the area of the Java Sea, southwest of Pangkalan Bun in Kalimantan province.
"The weather is cloudy and the area is surrounded by sea. We are still on our way so we won't make an assumption on what happened to the plane," said Indonesian air force spokesman Hadi Cahyanto.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Indonesians who has relatives onboard have descended on the Surabaya terminal hoping that the missing jet would be found on timet.
A 45-year-old woman who has six relations in the missing plane lamented as she spoke to AFP;
"They were going to Singapore for a holiday,they have always flown with AirAsia and there was no problem.” She said
“I am shocked to hear the news, and I am very worried that the plane might have crashed," she added.
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