QZ8501 AirAsia's flamboyant chief executive officer (CEO) Tony Fernandes has saluted his crew for remaining brave in the face of a disaster.

In a Twitter posting this afternoon, he said: "I want the world to know what amazing people I have in this company. Yesterday, my daughter flew to Bali. And she said the crew sang."

"She told me what amazing service our cabin crew gave and how everyone was so happy. It shows the spirit and the strength of our people," he added.

His postings drew an avalanche of support from other Twitter users, who among others, urged him to remain strong and praised him as an "exemplary CEO".

However, there were also those who questioned his future plans, while another sarcastically wrote, "(The) fact that u are tweeting 20 times a day is not going to put this tragedy right, Tony".

Earlier, Fernandes tweeted that Air Asia staff from "all over Asean, India and Japan were flying to Surabaya to assist our wonderful Indonesia All Stars. Seeing it shows how Asean could be."

CEO Fernandes 'scarred for life'

Fernandes has been reeling from the crash of AirAsia's Surabaya-Singapore flight, which was carrying 155 passengers and seven crew members.

At a press conference yesterday, the CEO said the incident had "scarred him for life".

He also apologised to the families of the passengers and said he would honour the airline's obligations to them, including compensation.

"We are prepared, and we will not be running away from any of our obligations," he had added.

Search and rescue operations are currently under way to retrieve the remains and the wreckage of the plane.

On Sunday morning, the Airbus 320-200 took off from Surabaya in Java, Indonesia, at 5.20am local time (6.20am Malaysian time) and was due to arrive in Singapore two hours later, but then lost contact with air traffic control.

Search and rescue (SAR) efforts have confirmed it crashed in the Karimata Straits between Belitung Island and Kalimantan.