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By Bloomberg

It was supposed to be their last vacation together in Singapore before they got married. Instead, it turned into a nightmare vigil for news about a missing plane.

Louise Sidharta, 25, heard about the AirAsia Bhd. plane that lost contact on her way to the airport in the central Indonesian city of Surabaya. She knew her fiancé and his family had taken an earlier flight to Singapore, where they were all going to holiday together. Soon, her worst fears were confirmed.

Search and rescue ships and planes from at least four countries are traversing large tracts of the Java Sea a day after Flight QZ8501 vanished off the coast of Borneo. The plane departed from Surabaya with 155 passengers and seven crew on board and disappeared off radar screens shortly after the pilots asked to change course to avoid clouds.

At Singapore’s Changi Airport, where bright Christmas decorations are still up, a holding area inside the immigration hall has been set up for relatives and friends of the passengers. Some opted to fly instead to Surabaya to seek news, joining those already waiting at the Indonesian airport.

The disappearance of the plane is a painful reminder for those who lost families and friends on two planes operated by state-run carrier Malaysian Airline System Bhd. Flight 370 vanished from radar screens en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur March 8 without warning, while MH17 was shot down in Ukraine in July.

Sidharta, who was taken to the holding area at Changi yesterday after her flight landed, said her fiancé, Alain, a 27- year-old entrepreneur, was traveling with his parents and three brothers. She didn’t provide further details. The passenger manifest listed an Alain Oktavianus.

‘Positive Thoughts’

“We had planned to marry in May next year,” Sidharta told reporters. “We are not thinking negatively right now. We are only having positive thoughts.”

At Surabaya, about 200 family members and friends, some in tears, waited quietly in a crisis room inside the airport, receiving briefings from government and airline officials.

Clutching a photo outside the room, a woman who gave her name as Nana said four of the five members of the family she worked for were on QZ8501.

“I’m already with the family for 18 years,” she said in between sobs. “I took care of the children since they were babies.”

Nana said she was employed by the family of Herumanto Tanus and his wife Indahju Liangsih, who had three children. She said Nico Giovanni, 17, and Justin Giovanni, 9, joined their parents on the flight to visit their sister Chiara Natasha, who is studying in Singapore.

Before leaving, the father said “we are going to meet Chiara in Singapore -- take care in Surabaya,” Nana said.

‘Heart Bleeds’

Budi Projo, 39, said he last spoke to his sister Natalina Wuntarjo, 33, on Dec. 23. Projo said she sounded excited about traveling to Singapore and onto Malaysia for a holiday even though she’d been to both countries a few times.

“I was shocked,” he told reporters of the moment he learned his sister was on the ill-fated flight. “I’ll stay here and wait for my sister. I hope my sister is fine.”

The AirAsia logo on Twitter and its official Facebook page went from its usual cherry red to gray within minutes of its first statement saying that the plane had lost contact.

AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes, who returned to Surabaya today after flying to Jakarta, also took to Twitter. “Keeping positive and staying strong. My heart bleeds for all the relatives of my crew and our passengers,” he posted.