A SEARCH and rescue operation was underway on Sunday night after AirAsia flight QZ8501 from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control.
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There were 162 passengers on the flight, including 138 adults, 16 children and one infant. Also on board were two pilots and five cabin crew.
AirAsia said there were 149 Indonesian passengers on board, three South Koreans, one German, one Singaporean, and one Malaysian.
Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop said she understood no Australians were on the plane.
"It's always deeply concerning when we hear news such as this and all we can do is ascertain as much as we can about the details of the flight and to determine whether there were any Australians on board," Ms Bishop said.
She added that she had offered Australia's "support and assistance".
The missing plane departed at 5.35am Indonesian time (9.35am AEDST) and was scheduled to arrive at 8.30am Singaporean time (11.30am AEDST).
Transport Ministry official Hadi Mustofa said the aircraft lost contact with the Jakarta air traffic control tower early Sunday morning.
Mr Mustafa said the last communication was from the pilot asking for permission to change the height from 32,000 to 34,000 feet in the Kumai Strait near Belitung due to bad weather.
Just five minutes later, at 6.17am local time, the tower in Jakarta lost contact with the aircraft. At 6.18am it had vanished from the radar. At 7.55am the flight was officially declared missing. When it went missing, the plane still had enough fuel for four hours flying time.
Tatang Zaenudin, deputy of personnel from Indonesia's national search and rescue agency Basarnas, said seven ships had been deployed to search in the sea near Belitung, however the rescue boats were not expected to arrive at the area until midnight local time (4am AEDST).
Local head of Basarnas Joni Superiyadi said poor weather conditions and waves up to 2m were expected to hamper the passage of the boats.
In addition to the four helicopters Basarnas had already dispatched, Mr Tatang said two Hercules aircraft had also been cleared to fly from Singapore to the site, and preparations were underway to speed up the process to approve flights from Australia to assist.
A crisis centre was set up at Surabaya airport on Sunday and relatives began arriving to tearfully view a full list of names of those who were on board.
Passengers' relatives told airport officials in Surabaya they had been trying the mobile phones of their loved ones without success.
One woman at the crisis centre said seven family members including her mother and brother were on the flight.
Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla tweeted: "We pray together with hope that the AirAsia plane QZ8501 SBY-Sin, which lost contact, is soon found and all passengers and crew have survived."
AirAsia said the captain in command had a total of 6100 flying hours and the first officer a total of 2275 flying hours.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC, had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on November 16.