The search for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that’s missing between Indonesia to Singapore is still on.

Unconfirmed reports have also emerged of plane wreckage being found, but no official verification has been made.

AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished in airspace following a succession of unfathomable tragedies, which took place in 2014. Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, visiting Singapore, mostly on holidays. The plane was due to land in Singapore around 11.30am AEDT.

The twin-engine, single-aisle aircraft went able to seat 180 passengers, missing while airborne for 42 minutes without sending a distress signal.

In a statement, Airbus said it regretted to confirm the A320-200 had gone missing. The plane came off the 2008 production line and had done 23,000 flight hours on around 13,600 flights.

“The last communication between the cockpit and air traffic control was at 6.13am, when one of the pilots ‘asked to avoid clouds by turning left and going higher to 34,000 feet (10,360 metres)”, said Djoko Murjatmodjo, Indonesia’s acting director general of transportation.

“The jet was last seen on radar at 6.16am and was gone a minute later,” he added.

According to AirAsia, the plane had undergone its last scheduled maintenance on 16 November.

“This particular aircraft was attempting to override the thunderstorm”, Anthony Roman, who is a FAA licensed commercial pilot, told MSNBC.

“These type of thunderstorms can exceed the aircraft’s capability, they can actually grow upwards much faster than the aircraft can climb. The storms as seen by the one encountered by the flight, can take down this kind of aircraft,” he stressed.

The pilot went on to explain that catastrophic hail can cause damage to the structural integrity, causing severe turbulence which exceeds the design limits of the aircraft.”

Yesterday’s rescue operations were suspended due to nightfall but operations resumed today.

“Visibility around the Java Sea is good,” said First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval commander at the Surabaya air force base.

“God willing, we can find it soon,” he said earlier today, but unfortunately more than 24 hour hours have gone by since the plane was last in contact.

On Sunday, PM Tony Abbott called Indonesian President Joko Widodo and offered an Australian plane to join the search for flight QZ8501, stressing that Australia would do whatever “we humanly could” to assist.

Twelve navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships are talking part in the search at the moment, along with ships and planes from Singapore and Malaysia, while an Australian Air Force Orion maritime patrol aircraft has also joined the search.

At the Surabaya airport, passengers’ relatives are unable to hold their tears, but try to comfort each other’s pain.

“Our priority is looking after all the next of kin for my staff and passengers. We will do whatever we can,” said chief executive of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes.

“The airline had no idea what went wrong. This is my worst nightmare coming true,” he admitted.

The Singapore Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), a conglomerate of air agencies including the country’s air force and navy, has offered support to Indonesia as well.

AirAsia is the dominating cheap travel airline in Southeast Asia. It is the first time the airline has lost a jet, but the incident has shaken many flyers’ trust, as a cap to the two Malaysia Airlines tragedies which took place earlier this year.