Indonesian rescue agency says AirAsia plane believed to have crashed in sea

An AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that went missing after its pilot failed to gain permission to alter course to avoid a storm is believed to have crashed into the sea, a senior Indonesian rescue agency official said on Monday.

Indonesia was searching the Java Sea on Monday for the AirAsia plane that went missing on Sunday during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

"Based on our coordinate estimation, initial estimation is in the water," Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said of the missing plane's likely location.

"It can be expanded based on evaluation," he told reporters on Monday.