AirAsia QZ8501: Pilot was known for extraordinary performance in air force

Jakarta: The pilot of the AirAsia flight, which went missing en route from Indonesia to Singapore, was known for his extraordinary performance as a jet fighter pilot before he joined the airline, a media report said on Tuesday. Iriyanto, 53, started out his career as an F-5 and F-16 fighter pilot after having graduated in 1983, the Jakarta Post reported. He joined the 14th squadron at Iswahjudi Air Force Base (AFB) in Madiun, East Java, and stayed there for around 10 years. [caption id=“attachment_2021319” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] “He was one of the best graduates,” the report quoted an official who trained Iriyanto as saying. “Iriyanto was known as one of the ‘Flight Leaders’ on F-5 Tigers, the leading fighter jet in the 1980s,” he said. Iriyanto also served with Indonesia’s Merpati Airline and Sriwijaya Airline prior to joining AirAsia, the report added. According to AirAsia statements, Iriyanto had logged a total of 20,537 flying hours, of which 6,053 flying hours were logged during his tenure with the airlines, while the co-pilot, French national Remi Emmanuel Plesel, had 2,247 hours. Iriyanto has two children. Meanwhile his daughter’s heartbreaking appeal asking her father to come back, which was posted on the social networking app Path, has gained media and public attention all over. The daughter, identified as Angela, put up a touching message with 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.” ) Iriyanto has another daughter, seven-year-old Arya Galih Gegana, reported The Guardian. Reportedly the two girls have been living with relatives in Yogyakarta, and planned to return on Sunday evening to Iriyanto’s hometown of Sidorajo in East Java, to be with their extremely distraught mother, Ida, who had locked herself in her room after hearing that the plane had gone missing, The Guardian report said. The pilot’s nephew told Indonesian news portal Detik.com that Iriyanto is a very caring man who has never failed to help those in need. “He is always helping people because he is a very caring person. If there is a sick relative who needed help and even money, my uncle would be there. If there are money problems in the family, he would surely help,” reported the New Straits Times. According to a media release by AirAsia, Irianto had till date clocked 6,100 hours of flying time. and his first officer Remi Emmanual Plesel, a french national, had logged 2,275 hours. It is now believed that the flight got into trouble after it experienced bad turbulence and went down near Belitung. Indonesian authorities have launched an extensive search where the Airbus A320 is believed to have crashed. The flight was carrying 155 passengers on board, including 16 children and one infant. With inputs from IANS