'Papa, come back home, I need you', pleads daughter of missing AirAsia QZ8501 pilot

It is not going to be a very happy new year for families of passengers aboard AirAsia flight QZ8501.  And more so for the little girl still waiting for her father, the pilot of missing AirAsia flight to come back home. The daughter,  identified as Angela,  has posted a heartbreaking message on social networking site Path dedicated to her father, Captain Irianto, reports Indonesian news website kompas.com. [caption id=“attachment_2020417” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Screen grab from path[/caption] Hopes are fading that 162 people aboard an AirAsia flight that went missing in storms over the Java sea on Sunday will be found safe but the still hopeful daughter of Captain Irianto uploaded a picture of her father and wrote: “Papa pulang. Kakak masih butuh papa. Kembalikan papaku. Papa pulang pa, papa harus ketemu.” Which translates to “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 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.