Choi Chi says uncertainty over his brother and niece is unbearable as he fears the worst over missing Air Asia fligh. The brother of the Briton on board the missing Air Asia flight has spoken of the family’s “unbearable” despair awaiting news.
Choi Chi Man was only on Flight QZ8501 with his two-year-old daughter, Zoe, because they could not get enough seats to fly with his wife and son on an earlier trip.
They are among 162 people missing after the plane disappeared late on Saturday night.
Speaking from his home in Alsager, Cheshire, Mr Choi’s brother Choi Chi, said: “We're trying to get through to Air Asia but it's proving very difficult. It's so frustrating, the uncertainty is unbearable.
'It's a very difficult time for all of the family, we've got to stick together and pull through.
'We're looking to go to Singapore at some point over the next few days. It's been hard to keep in the loop of what's going on when we're so far away from the action.”
Mr Choi, who is comforting their elderly parents, said he was “preparing for worst” as the search continued for the missing plane.
The family originally come from Hull after their parents emigrated from Hong Kong but Mr Choi now lives in Singapore.
He works in Indonesia where he is a unit managing director for electronic manufacturing firm Alstom Power.
Friends said he and his family could not get four seats on the earlier plane as they tired to travel back to Singapore so Mr Choi booked on a later one, it is believed.
He only bought tickets for the doomed flight on Boxing Day.
Steve Hayler, 62, a former colleague of Mr Choi, said: “I presume it was because they could not get four seats on the same flight together.
“It is just tragic. I am guessing it was a personal trip rather than business because they were travelling as a family.”
Mr Hayler said he met Mr Cho, who is in his late 40s, when they both worked for a company making industrial electrical control equipment in Warwick before they later worked together at the French global firm Schneider Electric.
Mr Choi worked for a time for Schneider Electric in Paris before relocating to the South East Asia and then getting a new job earlier this year in Jakarta, Indonesia
Mr Hayler, of Ashdon, Essex, added: “He was a genuinely nice bloke. I remember him as an expert networker who was brilliant at making contacts.
“There will be many hundreds of people who will have known ‘Chi’ as an acquaintance. There will be a lot of people who will be very sad.
“When you are part of a global team, you might not see people for a year, but then when you meet up, you are old buddies.”
The plane was being flown by Captain Irianto, an Indonesian former fighter pilot, who had clocked 6,100 hours of flying time.
“He is always helping people because he is a very caring person,” said his nephew, Doni, who lives in Surabaya – Indonesia’s second city, from which the plane took off.
“If there is a sick relative who needed help and even money, my uncle would be there.”
Capt Irianto was married to a housewife, with two school-age children, and was an active member of the Motor Besar motorcycle club – members of which were gathering at Capt Irianto’s house to support his family.
The co-pilot was a 45-year-old Frenchman named Rémi Emmanuel Plesel, who was born in the French territory of Martinique, but lived in Paris’s 17th arrondissement. He had flown 2,275 hours.
Three of the passengers were Christian missionaries from South Korea, sent to Indonesia but travelling to Singapore to renew their visas.
Thirty-seven year-old Park Seong-beom, his wife Lee Kyung-hwa, 36, and their 12-month-old daughter Park Yuna were from Yeosu, a fishing village 280 miles south of Seoul.
“I still can’t believe the family is missing,” said Choi Hong-koo, an official at the Yeosu First Presbyterian Church.
The remaining passengers were all from Indonesia, with one from Malaysia.
Maria Florentina Widodo, from Indonesia, was among the passengers. Her father, FY Widodo, a lecturer in medicine at the Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya University, posted a photo of himself and his daughter, taken on a previous flight, on Facebook.
Beneath it he wrote: “Pray for my safety.”
Choi Chi Man was only on Flight QZ8501 with his two-year-old daughter, Zoe, because they could not get enough seats to fly with his wife and son on an earlier trip.
They are among 162 people missing after the plane disappeared late on Saturday night.
Speaking from his home in Alsager, Cheshire, Mr Choi’s brother Choi Chi, said: “We're trying to get through to Air Asia but it's proving very difficult. It's so frustrating, the uncertainty is unbearable.
'It's a very difficult time for all of the family, we've got to stick together and pull through.
'We're looking to go to Singapore at some point over the next few days. It's been hard to keep in the loop of what's going on when we're so far away from the action.”
Mr Choi, who is comforting their elderly parents, said he was “preparing for worst” as the search continued for the missing plane.
The family originally come from Hull after their parents emigrated from Hong Kong but Mr Choi now lives in Singapore.
He works in Indonesia where he is a unit managing director for electronic manufacturing firm Alstom Power.
Friends said he and his family could not get four seats on the earlier plane as they tired to travel back to Singapore so Mr Choi booked on a later one, it is believed.
He only bought tickets for the doomed flight on Boxing Day.
Steve Hayler, 62, a former colleague of Mr Choi, said: “I presume it was because they could not get four seats on the same flight together.
“It is just tragic. I am guessing it was a personal trip rather than business because they were travelling as a family.”
Mr Hayler said he met Mr Cho, who is in his late 40s, when they both worked for a company making industrial electrical control equipment in Warwick before they later worked together at the French global firm Schneider Electric.
Mr Choi worked for a time for Schneider Electric in Paris before relocating to the South East Asia and then getting a new job earlier this year in Jakarta, Indonesia
Mr Hayler, of Ashdon, Essex, added: “He was a genuinely nice bloke. I remember him as an expert networker who was brilliant at making contacts.
“There will be many hundreds of people who will have known ‘Chi’ as an acquaintance. There will be a lot of people who will be very sad.
“When you are part of a global team, you might not see people for a year, but then when you meet up, you are old buddies.”
The plane was being flown by Captain Irianto, an Indonesian former fighter pilot, who had clocked 6,100 hours of flying time.
“He is always helping people because he is a very caring person,” said his nephew, Doni, who lives in Surabaya – Indonesia’s second city, from which the plane took off.
“If there is a sick relative who needed help and even money, my uncle would be there.”
Capt Irianto was married to a housewife, with two school-age children, and was an active member of the Motor Besar motorcycle club – members of which were gathering at Capt Irianto’s house to support his family.
The co-pilot was a 45-year-old Frenchman named Rémi Emmanuel Plesel, who was born in the French territory of Martinique, but lived in Paris’s 17th arrondissement. He had flown 2,275 hours.
Three of the passengers were Christian missionaries from South Korea, sent to Indonesia but travelling to Singapore to renew their visas.
Thirty-seven year-old Park Seong-beom, his wife Lee Kyung-hwa, 36, and their 12-month-old daughter Park Yuna were from Yeosu, a fishing village 280 miles south of Seoul.
“I still can’t believe the family is missing,” said Choi Hong-koo, an official at the Yeosu First Presbyterian Church.
The remaining passengers were all from Indonesia, with one from Malaysia.
Maria Florentina Widodo, from Indonesia, was among the passengers. Her father, FY Widodo, a lecturer in medicine at the Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya University, posted a photo of himself and his daughter, taken on a previous flight, on Facebook.
Beneath it he wrote: “Pray for my safety.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
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