As the search goes on for the missing AirAsia airliner lost on a flight between Indonesia and Singapore, the head of the airline has publicly called in "my worst nightmare."
AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes went on Twitter to express his feelings of grief and anxiety.
"I am touched by the massive show of support especially from my fellow airlines. This is my worse nightmare," he tweeted.
On a flight from Surabaya in Indonesia to Singapore, AirAsia Flight 8501 lost contact with controllers and vanished in a region of dense monsoon storm clouds.
Contact was lost about 42 minutes after takeoff from Surabaya airport while the aircraft was over the Java Sea between Tanjung Pandan on Belitung Island and Pontianak, on Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.
Indonesia and Singapore both launched a search and rescue operation, but heavy rains have hampered search efforts in the ocean region under the plane's flight path, officials said.
Indonesians made up the majority of the 162 people on board the regional low-cost carrier's flight, as Singapore is a popular destination for them, especially during holidays.
"We have no idea at the moment what went wrong," said Fernandes, a Malaysian businessman. "Let's not speculate at the moment."
Just before the Airbus A320 disappeared from ground radar the pilot had asked permission for a course change involving a turn and a climb to higher altitude to avoid violent storm clouds.
At no time was there any distress signal from the twin-engined airliner's crew, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting director general of transportation.
Friends and families of passengers were gathered at both the Surabaya airport and Changi International Airport in Singapore, hoping for word of the loved ones' fate.
Sunu Widyatmoko, the head of AirAsia Indonesia, said the company's "main priority is keeping the families of our passengers and colleagues informed on the latest developments."
The apparent loss of the AirAsia flight marks the third disaster for a Southeast Asian airline this year.
On March 8 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, on a flight to Beijing in China, disappeared without a trace with 239 people aboard. The mystery of its fate remains to this day despite a huge international search effort.
And on July 17, another Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down as it passed over rebel-held portions of eastern Ukraine while on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpure.
All 298 people on board that flight perished.
