Pilot of Missing AirAsia Plane Attended Brother’s Funeral a Week Ago
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ABC News(NEW YORK) — The pilot of the missing AirAsia plane was last seen by his family at the funeral for his brother a week before the plane he was piloting vanished from the sky, new reports reveal.
AirAsia has identified the captain using just one name, Iriyanto, and his father spoke to the BBC about the last time he saw his son.
Iriyanto’s father, Suwarto, told the BBC that another one of his sons was laid to rest last week after dying from diabetes.
“I want my son to come back alive and well, but if that’s not meant to be, if God doesn’t want that, it’s in the hands of fate,” Suwarto told the BBC.
Iriyanto had 6,100 hours of flying time behind him, according to a statement released by AirAsia.
The co-pilot was identified as Remi Emmanuel Plesel, who had 2,275 flying hours at the time of the Saturday morning flight.
John Nance, a former Air Force pilot and ABC News aviation consultant, said that those figures suggest that the pilot had a good amount of experience going into the flight and while his co-pilot’s number was significantly lower, it would not immediately raise any concerns about his ability.
The last time air traffic control heard from Capt. Iriyanto was about 40 minutes into the flight, when he asked to increase the plane’s altitude to avoid clouds in the area.
The plane went missing five minutes later, at 6:17 a.m. Sunday local time.
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