Indonesia's search for the missing AirAsia plane with 162 people on board has been called off. The jet was reported missing on Dec. 28, Sunday after its pilots requested to change course due to bad weather during a flight from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore.
"This is my worst nightmare," Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia's CEO Tony Fernandes told Daily Mail. "My only thoughts are with the passengers and my crew."
Fernandes has flown to Indonesia to help with the search and rescue (SAR) operation. He also expressed how touched he was by "the massive show of support" especially from other airlines.
"We put our hope in the SAR operation and thank the Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysian governments," said the 50-year-old entrepreneur, who is also the chairman of the Premier League football team Queens Park Rangers.
The missing jet Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 is an Airbus 320-200. It had 155 passengers and seven crew members. Among the 162 people on board, 155 were Indonesians, three were South Koreans, one was British, one was Singaporean, one was Malaysian and one of the pilots was French.
In a news conference, Indonesia's National Committee of Safety Transportation head Tatang Kurniadi said they are using their capacity to search on sea and land.
"Hopefully, we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible," Kurniadi said. "What I need to emphasize is until now, we have not found out how the plane fell or what kind of emergency it was."
AirAsia, which owns 49 percent of Indonesia AirAsia is owned by (AIRA.KL), has had a clean safety record since it started operating in 2001, according to Reuters.