Passengers check in an AirAsia flight at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta December 28, 2014. Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to cha
Passengers check in an AirAsia flight at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta December 28, 2014. Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore. Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. (2317 GMT on Saturday). No distress signal had been sent, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, an Indonesian transport ministry official. Reuters/Pius Erlangga

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird in a statement on Sunday said no Canadians were believed to have been passengers on board AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that went missing on the same day over the Java Sea. A spokesperson told the Canadian Press officials are continuously coordinating with local officials to confirm the information they have.

"We have no indication that Canadian citizens are aboard; Canadian officials are working to confirm this with local authorities," Francois Lasalle, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said. Earlier reports said majority of the 162 passengers on board the missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians. There were also three from South Korea, as well as one each from Malaysia, the U.K., and Singapore.

AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control over the Java Sea 42 minutes after it took off from Surabaya, Indonesia bound for Singapore. AirAsia is a discount airline partly owned by a company based in Malaysia.

On Monday, Indonesian officials resumed their search of the Java Sea for the missing AirAsia Airbus A320-200 plane. The pilot had earlier requested permission to change course to avoid a storm cell. He wanted to climb to 38,000ft (11,000m). He failed to gain permission. Air traffic control authorities said they did not receive a distress signal from Flight QZ8501. Five minutes later it disappeared on the radar at 06:24 local time (23:24 GMT Saturday).

Two C-130 Hercules planes have been sent, Air Force spokesman Hadi Thahjanto said. They will focus on areas northeast of Indonesia's Bangka island, which according to Reuters lies roughly halfway between Surabaya and Singapore, in the Java Sea. Boats have likewise been sent to scour the area. No wreckage has so far been found, an Indonesian official told the BBC.

"We don't want to speculate but right now of course the plane has been missing for 12 hours and there's a deep sense of depression here," AirAsia's Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said. "This is a massive shock to us and we are devastated by what has happened. It's unbelievable."

Djoko Murjatmodjo, an official from Indonesia's transport ministry, said they declined the pilot's request "at that time due to traffic, there was a flight above, and five minutes later [flight QZ8501] disappeared from radar." Fernandes said the Indonesian captain had over 20,500 flight hours to his credit, 7,000 of which were with AirAsia. The aircraft last underwent maintenance in mid-November. Airbus said the aircraft had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights.

This is Malaysia's third major aviation disaster of 2014. The first was Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 which disappeared over the Indian Ocean in March, carrying 239 people. In July, another Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine, instantly killing all 298 passengers and crew.