AirAsia flight QZ8501: ‘Papa come back’, pilot's daughter posts on social media

Jakarta: As search operation continues for the missing AirAsia flight QZ8501, which went missing with 162 people onboard, the daughter of the pilot asked him to come back, in an emotional message on social media.

As reported in the Malaysian Insider, the daughter of Captain Irianto, Angela, uploaded a picture of her father and wrote: "Papa pulang. Kakak masih butuh papa. Kembalikan papaku. Papa pulang pa, papa harus ketemu." (Papa come back. I still need you. Return my papa to me. Papa come back, we have to meet.)"

Irianto, who has two children, Angela and Arya Galih Gegana, is an experienced pilot with 6,100 flying hours. His co-pilot, Frenchman Remi Emmanuel Plesel, has 2,275 flying hours.

Indonesian search and rescue officials believe that flight QZ8501 is at the 'bottom of the sea'. The plane had on board 155 passengers, 2 pilots, and 5 cabin crew.

Read: Missing AirAsia plane likely 'at bottom of sea': Indonesia search chief

The Indonesia AirAsia plane, an Airbus A320-200, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore on Sunday.

Read: Key developments in disappearance of AirAsia jet

Flight QZ8501 did not issue a distress signal and disappeared over the Java Sea five minutes after requesting the change of course, which was refused because of heavy air traffic, officials said.

Read: Missing AirAsia flight: Meet the family of 10 that missed flight QZ8501

"Based on our coordinates, we expect it is in the sea, so for now (we think) it is on the sea floor," Soelistyo, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, told reporters when asked about the missing plane's likely location.