Sad: 8-Year-Old Air Asia’s Pilot’s Son Thinks His Dad Is Still At Work

Captain Iriyanto (left), an experienced former military jet pilot, crashed in airspace thick with storm clouds between Indonesia and Singapore while piloting the Airbus with 162 people on board on Sunday. His eight-year-old son Arya Galih Gegara (top right) has been told his father is still at work. The pilot’s brother Budi Sutiono said: ‘He keeps asking us and he keeps crying because he misses his father.’ The family have switched all the televisions in the house off and will break the news to eight-year-old Galih gradually. Captain Iriyanto’s daughter (bottom right) made an emotional plea for her father to come home when news of the plane’s disappearance first broke, telling him: ‘I still need you’.

Wow! This is so touching! I pray God gives them the fortitude to bear this loss.